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Enlargement remains strong priority for EU: Tusk

Xinhua, February 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

European Council President Donald Tusk on Thursday said enlargement remains a strong priority for the European Union (EU), but "more hard work" need to be completed for Albania joining the EU.

Tusk made the remarks after his meeting with the visiting Albania Prime Minister Rama in Brussels.

"Albania is now a candidate for membership of the Union. So we hope and expect that it will intensify its reform efforts," Tusk said in a statement.

"To become a modern mainstream European country, Albania needs to build a culture of compromise-based political dialogue," he stressed, adding that "Albania should be as constructive and as reasonable in its own political life as it is in the region."

Albania was identified as a potential candidate for EU membership during the Thessaloniki European Council summit in June 2003. In 2009, Albania submitted its formal application for EU membership. Endit