After Albania's application for EU membership, the Council of the European Union asked the European Commission on 16 November 2009 to prepare an assessment on the readiness of Albania to start accession negotiations.[5] On 16 December 2009, the European Commission submitted the Questionnaire on accession preparation to the Albanian government. Albania returned answers to them on 14 April 2010.[6] On 5 December 2013, an MEP meeting recommended to the Council to grant Albania candidate status.[3]