BRUSSELS – The fifth meeting of the Accession Conference between the European Union and Albania was held on 22 May. Albania opened the Cluster 3: Competitiveness and inclusive growth, which contains eight negotiating chapters. With a total of 24 out of 33 negotiating chapters now opened, Albania has surpassed Serbia, which has opened 22 chapters.
Montenegro remains the frontrunner in the EU accession process, having opened all 33 negotiating chapters and provisionally closed six.
Since it opened the Cluster 1: Fundamentals in October last year, Albania has moved very quickly, opening negotiations on an additional three clusters in the past eight months.
During last month’s opening of Cluster 2, Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama stated that the goal of the country was to open and then close all negotiating chapters by 2027.
At yesterday’s accession conference, the EU delegation was led by Ambassador Agnieszka Bartol, Permanent Representative of Poland to the EU, on behalf of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU, with the participation of Commission Director General Gert Jan Koopman. The Albanian delegation was led by Mr Igli Hasani, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania.
Marta Kos, European Commission for Enlargement, congratulated Albania with a post on X, writing that the opening of Cluster 3 “means a stronger Albanian economy for the benefit of your citizens and another step closer to the EU”.
Cluster 3 contains eight chapters: Chapter 10 – Digital transformation and media, Chapter 16 – Taxation, Chapter 17 – Economic and monetary policy, Chapter 19 – Social policy and employment, Chapter 20 – Enterprise and industrial policy, Chapter 25 – Science and research, Chapter 26 – Education and culture, Chapter 29 – Customs union.