At the ninth meeting of the Intergovernmental Conference on Accession between the European Union and Albania today, the first negotiation chapters were provisionally closed: Chapter 25 (Science and Research), Chapter 26 (Education and Culture), and Chapter 30 (External Relations).
Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence, stated at the conference that following the fulfilment of interim benchmarks in the area of the rule of law in May, Albania had embarked on a process that culminated today - the closure of the first three negotiation chapters.
"These are chapters of strategic importance for both the European Union and Albania. This significant achievement confirms the commitment of Albania and the EU to continuing the country's European integration. I warmly welcome this important progress and encourage Albania to continue implementing key reforms to make further headway in the negotiation process in the coming months," Byrne said at the conference in Brussels.
The Enlargement Commissioner, Marta Kos, noted that from now on, they are counting on "Albania to maintain its current momentum".
"Albania has closed its first three negotiation chapters - science and research, education and culture, and external relations. These are areas where Albania is increasingly integrating into the European family in practice. We are now counting on Albania to maintain this momentum and further intensify its reforms, particularly in the rule of law and the fight against corruption, and to continue implementing reforms in a transparent, accountable, and inclusive manner," said Kos. She referred to today as "Super Tuesday" because "it has not happened in more than 20 years that as many as four countries on the path to membership have held intergovernmental conferences on the same day."
At the previous Intergovernmental Conference, held on 26 May 2026, it was confirmed that Albania met the interim benchmarks for Cluster 1 – Fundamentals. This cluster encompasses, among other things, the functioning of democratic institutions, public administration reform, chapters relating to the rule of law, and economic criteria. It was precisely the fulfilment of these conditions that allowed the European Union and Albania to begin closing negotiation chapters.
Albania has opened 33 negotiation chapters so far in its accession process to the EuropeanUnion.
In line with the negotiation principles adopted by the IntergovernmentalConference, agreements reached during negotiations on individual chapters are not considered final until a comprehensive agreement on all negotiation chapters has been achieved.
(EUpravo zato)