European Affairs Deputy Minister Marilena Raouna and Albanian chief negotiator Majlinda Dhuka on Monday held a telephone call to discuss the next steps as the western Balkan nation aims to join the European Union.

According to Raouna, Albania is “continuing its steady progress on its reform path”, regarding the various legal reforms required for a country to join the EU.

She stressed that enlargement is a “top priority” of Cyprus’ six-month term as the holder of the Council of the European Union’s rotating presidency, which will come to a conclusion at the end of next month.

EU enlargement, she added, is a goal which “we continue to advance with determination and a results-oriented approach, in line with the merit-based process”.

Albania was described by European Enlargement Comissioner Marta Kos in March as “a frontrunner in the EU accession process”, with the final negotiation cluster for EU membership having been opened with the country in November last year.

In April, Kos said that Albania “still has a lot of work ahead, but it has already made substantial progress” toward EU membership.

“We are currently in the process of approving the interim benchmarks related to the rule of law. Once these are in place, Albania can begin closing chapters. So, while much needs to be done, the Albanian leadership aims to conclude negotiations by 2027 or 2028, and we support it,” she told The Parliament magazine.

Meanwhile, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic penned a joint article in German newspaper Frankfuter Allgemeine Zeitung calling for an accelerated process of integration into the EU, which would see both countries gradually incorporated into the bloc.

Their proposal would see both countries join the European single market and the continent’s border-free Schengen zone, but not be immediately entitled to European commissioners, members of the European Parliament, or veto rights at the European Council level – something all 27 current EU member states enjoy.

That article comes after Rama had said words to the same effect as conversations surrounding a “two-speed Europe” abounded at the beginning of the year.

It has now been almost 13 years since Croatia, the last country to join the EU, did so in 2013, and in the intervening years, one member state, the United Kingdom, has left the bloc.

With this in mind, President Nikos Christodoulides had said last year that the EU “must deliver” on the issue of enlargement.

“Enlargement falls within the European Union’s political range and we must do much more. We must succeed,” he said.