Tirana, March 6 - The heads of diplomacy of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland as well as the Estonian Undersecretary for European Affairs, voiced their support for Albania and North Macedonia.

In a joint press release, foreign affair ministers of these EU member states expressed their “determined and unequivocal support for the European aspirations of the Western Balkan states and the firm, merit-based prospect of their full European Union membership”.

The Polish head of diplomacy, Jacek Krzysztof Czaputowicz was in Albania. In an interview with the executive director of AIIS, Alba Çela, he said:

“Unlike some other EU member states, we are not in the dilemma over whether to support enlarging or strengthening the EU. Enlarging the EU leads to strengthening it, and a real accession perspective is the best motivating factor for candidate countries to undertake reforms. For these reasons, a credible enlargement process is in the interest of both the Western Balkans countries and the entire European Union. It is thus a ‘win-win’ situation. The Western Balkans region is of key importance to ensuring security in the context of migration flows, terrorism, cyber and hybrid threats, as well as the destabilizing impact from certain third countries. We hope that EU member states will decide in favor of opening accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia during the March meeting of the European Council.”

The heads of diplomacy of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland as well as the Estonian Undersecretary for European Affairs, in their joint press release strongly hope that the Council will agree this month to start the accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia, following the European Commission’s renewed positive recommendations and assessment of both countries’ reform efforts as well as the Commission’s Communication on enhancing the accession process.

“This decision is needed to reaffirm the commitment and credibility of the EU enlargement policy,” they added.

“As representatives of countries who have joined themselves the European Union 16 years ago, we share the common belief that the EU enlargement policy contributes to the stability, security and prosperity both in the Western Balkan region and Europe as a whole. The European integration of the Western Balkan countries should thus remain a strategic political objective for the EU”, the press release reads.

According to foreign ministers, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland remain committed to supporting and assisting the Western Balkan states in their continued reform efforts linked to the accession process, both bilaterally and in the framework of the European Union and other multilateral formats. The speed of the accession negotiations should be determined solely by the progress in reform areas set out by the Commission and the Council, adherence to the EU values and the Common Foreign and Security Policy alignment.