Albania could join the European Union by the end of the term of the current Commission, said outgoing Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi, as he was welcoming the opening of EU accession talks for the country.

Albania’s strong dedication to the reform process led us to the opening of the first cluster. We give full support to speed up the reform process, so that the country can become an EU member by the end of the next term, Varhelyi said. The term of an European Commission is five years.

The EU decided to detach Albania from the de-facto group with Macedonia and to allow it to open its accession talks, as Macedonia remains blocked by Bulgaria.