EU Praises Albania's Integration Progress

"Albania has a clear European perspective and we discussed today the way forward in this process," Mogherini said on Tuesday after a meeting in Brussels with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

"I welcome Prime Minister Rama's firm commitment to the European path of Albania, including the necessary reform work," Mogherini added.

She also expressed "appreciation for Albania's continued effort to be a constructive partner in the region and beyond".

Albania became an EU candidate country in June 2014 and Rama's centre-left government hopes to open accession negotiations with Brussels later this year.

However, a recent statement made during a TV interview in Kosovo, during which Rama hinted at the unification of Albanians in the region, albeit under the umbrella of the EU, has rattled Brussels as well as Belgrade.

"The unification of Albanians in Albania and Kosovo, Albanians that live in two Albanian countries, is unavoidable and unquestionable. The question is how it will happen," Rama said in an interview for TV Klan Kosova on April 6.

His Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic responded by vowing that Serbia would never allow Albanians to unite under one state.

"I promise Prime Minister Rama that Kosovo and Albania will never unify? I ask Albanian leaders to stop causing further instability in the region!" Vucic wrote on Twitter.

Maja Kocijancic, European Commission spokesperson for neighbourhood policy and enlargement negotiations, also criticised Rama's statement.

She told Beta news agency that Balkan countries aiming to join the EU had committed to "regional cooperation, reconciliation and good neighbourly relations".

"All provocative statements are unacceptable in this context," she said.