Von der Leyen from Tivat: Albania Moving Fast Towards EU Membership

The senior official particularly highlighted Albania and Montenegro's progress on the path to integration.

The enlargement is based on merit, but this does not mean it should be slow. In fact, it must become faster, more reliable and more visible to citizens, both in candidate countries and in EU member states.

Now there is a very appropriate moment that we must turn into concrete action, and then to membership. Montenegro and Albania are doing very good work and are close to their target”, Von der Leyeen said.

Earlier, Germany and France presented a non-paper for the Western Balkans. In the informal document, Berlin and Paris ask the European Commission to draft proposals that would facilitate the gradual integration of candidate countries into the European Union.

Under the proposal, countries approaching membership could benefit early from some advantages of the European internal market, and a greater inclusion of candidate states in EU institutional processes.

The enlargement policy needs a new impetus. The European Union's tensions with the Western Balkans on June 5th and Moldova on June 22nd represent an opportunity not to be lost.

The common goal is to conclude the European Union as a truly European union. To achieve this goal and give a new dynamic process, additional incentives must be created through mutual, merit-based integration. At the same time, the current enlargement process must be simplified to become more efficient and enable faster and deeper integration, in line with the Copenhagen criteria”, the document says.

Germany and France underline that the final goal remains full membership in the European Union. According to them, gradual integration is not intended to replace full membership, nor to extend the path towards it.