BRUSSELS – The European Commission is preparing a roadmap that is expected to formally endorse Albania’s goal of completing its EU accession negotiations by the end of 2027, Euronews reported.
According to Euronews sources from EU institutions, the document expected to acknowledge Tirana’s ambition to close all negotiating chapters by December next year, while also setting out priorities Albania will need to deliver on to address the remaining gaps in the accession process.
Albanian authorities have long identified the end of 2027 as their target for completing accession negotiations. Prime Minister Edi Rama and other senior officials have repeatedly presented the timeline as a plan agreed with the European Commission.
While the European Commission has supported Albania’s ambition, it has so far avoided formally setting deadlines for the completion of accession talks, stressing that enlargement remains a merit-based process.
“As you know, enlargement doesn’t work with dates. But the more the country is coming towards the end of the technical part of the accession, the more we can say about it or the more we can use the years”, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said in July.
According to Euronews, this approach is now set to change as the Commission prepares new roadmaps for the candidate countries that have made the most progress towards EU membership.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the initiative during her State of the Union address to the European Parliament last week.
“We will soon be proposing roadmaps for the candidates that have made most progress,” von der Leyen said, referring to Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans as countries whose future lies in the European Union.
In Albania’s case, the roadmap is expected to set out the key deliverables Tirana will need to prioritise if it is to complete the negotiating process by the end of 2027.
