Prime Minister Edi Rama received today the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Greece Evangelos Venizelos, who is visiting Tirana as part of his Western Balkans tour in the framework of Greek Presidency of the Council of European Union.

Prime Minister Rama welcomed Deputy Prime Minister Venizelos and expressed readiness of Albanian Government to take cooperation between two countries to a new level in all fields, in the framework of the friendship, good neighbourly relations and strategic partnership.

The conversation focused on the Albania’s European perspective and Prime Minister expressed his full confidence in obtaining the candidate country status in June, during EU Greek Presidency. Likewise, Prime Minister Rama informed Greek Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of reforms undertaken by Albanian Government, mainly in the fight against organized crime and corruption.

Greece’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister commended the commitment of Albanian Government and assured Prime Minister Rama that granting of candidate status to Albania during Greek Presidency of EU Council would be a key priority of this Presidency.

Mr. Venizelos also offered support to Prime Minister Rama for cooperation at technical level with Greek experts to accelerate the process of Albania’s EU accession.