Hungary praises Albania’s progress on path to integration

Albania is making spectacular progress on the road to integration during Hungary’s EU presidency, which shows the entire Western Balkans that there is hope for accession, the foreign minister said on Thursday.

The foreign ministry cited Péter Szijjártó telling a joint press conference with Adea Pirdeni, Albania’s minister of state for public administration and anti-corruption, that the world was going through a decidedly dangerous period, with the increasing danger of the escalation of the war in Ukraine.

He added that the most dangerous two months of recent years were only just beginning and would last until the inauguration of the US President-elect Donald Trump.

Szijjártó said the security and economic situation of the European Union had weakened significantly, so new dynamism was needed. This new force and freshness could come from the ambitious countries of the Western Balkans that want to join it, he added.

“So speeding up EU enlargement is a real European interest, which fully coincides with Hungary’s national interests because peace, freedom and stability in our neighbourhood, in the Western Balkans, is in our fundamental interest,” he said.

“It is a very important objective of our responsible neighbourhood policy,” he said.

Szijjártó decried that the countries of the region had been kept waiting more than fifteen years on average in the accession corridor.

“If we cannot provide this opportunity, it will seriously harm the credibility of not only our enlargement policy but the whole of the EU, which should be avoided,” he said.

Szijjártó said Albania had made spectacular progress during the Hungarian EU presidency recently, with the start of its accession talks on essential matters.

“And now we’re working to ensure that EU organises another intergovernmental conference with Albania still under the Hungarian presidency in December — after the first group of chapters were opened at the first intergovernmental conference — and we can also open another group of negotiating chapters, namely the sixth, on external relations,” he said.

“Real accession talks have started: a new defence and security partnership agreement has been signed between the EU and Albania, and Albania has joined the Single Euro Payments Area,” he added.

Read also:

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• FM Szijjártó: Hungary aims to have Albania’s EU accession chapters opened