The European Union has opened negotiations with Albania on Cluster 3, which concerns competitiveness and inclusive growth, according to a statement from the European Council. The EU and Albania have entered a new phase of accession talks, focusing on so-called Cluster 3 – "Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth".
This stage of negotiations is part of the broader EU enlargement strategy, aiming for candidate countries to gradually align their legislation and standards with those of the EU.
Cluster 3 covers several important areas: economic and monetary policy, social policy and employment, education, research and innovation, as well as entrepreneurship and industrial policy.
The opening of this cluster means that the EU considers Albania to have made sufficient progress to move on to deeper and more concrete discussions on reforms in these sectors.
Specifically, Cluster 3 includes the following negotiating chapters: Chapter 10 – digital transformation and media, Chapter 16 – taxation, Chapter 17 – economic and monetary policy, Chapter 19 – social policy and employment, Chapter 20 – entrepreneurship and industrial policy, Chapter 25 – science and research, Chapter 26 – education and culture, and Chapter 29 – customs union.
Rather than opening each chapter individually, negotiations are now conducted in groups of related areas, which is intended to speed up the process and enable quicker implementation of reforms. The statement notes that the EU has also set benchmarks for the provisional closure of these chapters.
The decision was made at the fifth Accession Conference with Albania, held in Brussels, and follows the earlier opening of the Fundamentals cluster, the External Relations cluster, and the Internal Market cluster at conferences held on 15 October, 17 December 2024, and 14 April 2025.
The European Council stated that monitoring of Albania’s progress in aligning with EU legislation and relevant European standards and their implementation will continue throughout the negotiation process.
The meeting was chaired on behalf of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council by Ambassador Agnieszka Bartol, Poland’s Permanent Representative to the EU, while the Albanian delegation was led by Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Igli Hasani.
The path depends on further progress
Following the recent decision by the European Parliament to open a Western Balkans office in Tirana, the institution explained to our portal that enlargement is of the greatest strategic importance for the EU, which is why this decision was made.
When asked by our journalist whether the choice of Albania was due to the country being "currently the closest to EU membership," the European Parliament confirmed that Albania has made significant progress during accession negotiations, but that the path forward depends on continued progress.
"There are other countries in the Western Balkans, such as Montenegro, which have every reason to hope for the completion of accession negotiations before the end of this parliamentary term," the European Parliament told EUpravo.
The office in Tirana will serve as a key point of contact between the European Parliament and national parliaments, and will also work to build networks with civil society and local partners across the Western Balkans to raise awareness about the European Parliament’s work.
(EUpravo zato.rs)
