The European Council granted Albania the status of candidate for EU membership, as per Twitter of Štefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Speech. He called this decision recognition of Albania’s success in reforming and a call for further efforts. Earlier, the European Commission recommended candidate status for Albania.
Tirana applied for accession in 2009, exactly when the Stabilisation and Association Agreement entered into force. Hence, in a year, visa requirements for visitors of Albania were temporary abolished.
As a rule, a country needs up to five years to open actual accession. This is the time it is supposed to spend on drawing its economic and financial institutions in compliance with the EU requirement. Interestingly, even in case reforms are passed, EU membership is not guaranteed. For instance, Turkey's EU membership bid has been pending for fourteen years by now. As for the EU authorities, there is no consensus on Albania's candidacy. Many fear that other Balkan countries will follow Albania in a plea for accession, while the continuous crises in South Europe are already weighing on the European economy.
The EU looks weary of onboarding new members, and older Europe seems to be tired of paying for newcomers. This was obvious at the elections to the European Parliament: shocking numbers of radicals and eurosceptics got elected.