As the most advanced candidate country on the road to integration with the European Union, on Monday 14 April Albania opened the second ‘cluster’ of chapters of the fundamental acquis, relating to the internal market, at an Intergovernmental Conference held in the margins of the EU Foreign Affairs Council (see other news).
Albania opened its first two ‘clusters’ in a record time of less than three months, between October and December last year (see EUROPE 13504/1, 13547/2).
The new European momentum around enlargement has benefited the small Western Balkan country, which saw its bid decoupled from that of North Macedonia in September 2024, in order to speed up the process.
“I feel very grateful - there is still a lot to discuss, but this breakthrough is encouraging and Albania is fully committed to fulfilling all its obligations and concluding the negotiations by 2027”, said the country’s Prime Minister, Edi Rama, in the late morning.
The integration of the Western Balkans has also become a question of external security, and is now presented as such by the High Representative of the Union, Kaja Kallas, as well as by several member countries, including Germany: “The further integration of the Western Balkans over the last three years has also been a joint European peace policy”, said Annalena Baerbock, Minister for Foreign Affairs, at Monday’s EU Foreign Affairs Council (see other news).
“Albania is the ‘success story’ of enlargement”, said the Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos. According to her, Tirana’s aim is to open all the remaining ‘clusters’ by the end of the year, so that it can “begin closing chapters starting in 2026”.
The Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU, represented by Radosław Sikorski, Minister of Foreign Affairs, has pledged to push forward discussions within the EU Council as far as possible, with a view to a new IGC by July and the handover of the Presidency to Denmark.
Tirana hopes to conclude negotiations by 2027 and officially join the EU at the end of the decade. According to Kaja Kallas and Marta Kos, this is an “ambitious but achievable” target, provided we continue to implement the necessary reforms. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)