EU chief starts Balkans tour, says enlargement top priority

(ANSA-AFP) - TIRANA, OCT 23 - EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday pledged that membership expansion would be high on the Brussels agenda, as she arrived in Albania at the start of a tour of six Balkan nations hoping to join the bloc. "Rest assured that enlargement will remain top priority in my next mandate," van der Leyen told a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. "We have now all the necessary tools and all the instruments that we need in place, so let's go to a good work," she added. Rama said that there was "no debate on whether Albania's place is in the European Union, and our children's future must be shaped only in the EU". "We are EU fanatics", the prime minister stressed. (ANSA-AFP).