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Intergovernmental Conference at Ministerial level on the Accession of Albania

European Council / Council of the European Union

Council of the EU
Press release
19 July 2022

Today the EU opened accession negotiations with Albania.

This follows a decision by the Council on 25 March 2020 to open accession negotiations, which was endorsed by the members of the European Council on 26 March 2020, as well as the approval by the Council on 18 July 2022 of the Negotiating Framework for the negotiations with Albania, in accordance with the revised enlargement methodology.

The EU delegation was headed by Jan Lipavský, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, and the European Commission was represented by Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement. The delegation of Albania was led by Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Albania is already a close partner of the EU in the Stabilisation and Association Process for the Western Balkans. The EU and Albania stood side by side during the COVID-19 pandemic, and also in the face of Russia's unjustified and unprovoked military aggression against Ukraine, and its impacts on the entire European continent. As stated by the Council on 14 December 2021, the EU delegation welcomed the continued determination of Albania to advance the EU reform agenda and deliver tangible and sustained results.

The EU delegation notes that the Commission has advanced its work to carry out and complete the process of analytical examination of the EU acquis and stands ready to present in due time its results to Albania. On this basis, it invites the Commission to continue to assess the state of preparedness of Albania for opening negotiations in specific areas and identify the issues that will most likely come up in the negotiations, starting with the fundamentals' cluster, which in accordance with the Negotiating Framework, will be opened first once Albania has met the relevant criteria agreed by the Council.

The EU also highly welcomed the fact that Albania has fully aligned with the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy decisions and declarations and encouraged Albania to continue to do so.