At the end of an Intergovernmental Conference held on Tuesday 16 September, Tirana received the green light from the EU to officially open the fourth set of accession negotiation chapters (cluster), bringing together those relating to the environmental agenda, energy and transport.
Albania has opened five of the six clusters, and is leading the way among the candidate countries for EU membership. Its Prime Minister, Edi Rama, has never hidden his ambition to see his country join the Union by the end of the decade (see EUROPE 13636/7).
“I hope that we will be able to welcome the first countries [into the EU] by 2030”, said the Austrian Minister for European Affairs, Claudia Plakolm, at the General Affairs Council in Brussels (see other news).
Others, however, are more cautious (see EUROPE 13677/13) about Tirana’s state of readiness: “There is still progress to be made, particularly in the area of the rule of law, but overall Albania is on the right track. I would just like to remind you that even important decisions [on enlargement] can only be taken unanimously”, said Gunter Krichbaum, the German Federal Minister for European Affairs.
Of the six Western Balkan countries applying for integration, Montenegro and Albania remain the most advanced in the process. For the first time, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, even mentioned the possibility of Tirana concluding technical accession negotiations next year, with a two-year window for ratification by the member countries (see EUROPE 13700/3). (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)