{"id":454894,"date":"2026-05-27T10:53:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T08:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/05\/27\/allargamento-albania-pronta-a-chiudere-i-primi-capitoli-negoziali-lue-si-avvicina\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T11:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T09:37:14","slug":"enlargement-albania-ready-to-close-the-first-negotiation-chapter-moving-one-step-closer-to-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/05\/27\/enlargement-albania-ready-to-close-the-first-negotiation-chapter-moving-one-step-closer-to-the-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"Enlargement: Albania ready to close the first negotiation chapter, moving one step closer to the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Albania is one step closer to the European Union<\/strong>. The candidate country<\/a>\u2019s accession process has made satisfactory progress, allowing for the start of the closure of negotiation chapters<\/strong>. This is a key milestone in the path towards the 12-star club, following the opening of the chapters. Specifically, the government in Tirana has met the benchmarks regarding the so-called “fundamentals<\/strong>,” namely the functioning of democratic institutions, public administration reform, the rule of law and economic criteria.<\/p>\n

Marilena Raouna<\/strong>, Deputy Minister for European Affairs of Cyprus, a country with the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU<\/a>,\u00a0welcomed the results. Fulfilling the interim benchmarks for the fundamentals cluster represents a \u201cmilestone for Albania\u201d on its path to EU accession, she emphasised at the end of the eighth accession conference with Albania (yesterday evening, 26 May). At the same time, she added, \u201cit demonstrates the country\u2019s commitment\u201d to integration, which is important for everyone since, as the Deputy Minister emphasised, EU enlargement remains \u201ca geopolitical necessity for the EU and a top priority for the Cyprus Presidency.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos also expressed satisfaction,<\/strong> \u00a0and not only because it marks a “key step that allows Albania to begin closing negotiation chapters.” With the government in Tirana, she explains, \u201cwe have defined the final targets for key elements such as an independent judiciary and anti-corruption measures.\u201d\u00a0But there\u2019s no room for complacency now, Kos warns, as “the toughest phase of the negotiations begins: preparing for EU accession<\/strong> and further strengthening trust with member states.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“We are pleased,” is all Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama\u00a0<\/strong>had to say. “We have managed to open all the negotiation chapters in 11 months \u2013 very quickly \u2013 and have now moved into the final phase with today\u2019s conference, once again within a very short timeframe.”<\/p>\n

The accession process and Albania\u2019s path forward<\/h4>\n

Under the accession process, once a country has applied for and been granted “candidate” status, it begins political negotiations on\u00a032 chapters, grouped into clusters. All chapters must first be opened and then closed. Once all the negotiation chapters have been closed, the country automatically becomes an EU Member State.<\/p>\n

Albania applied for EU membership in 2009<\/a>\u00a0and gained candidate status in June 2014. The first intergovernmental conference, marking the formal and official start of accession negotiations, was held in July 2022. All negotiation “clusters” with Albania were opened during the accession conferences held in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The eighth conference with Tirana confirms that the requirements for the ‘fundamentals’ cluster have been met. Kos: “The hardest work begins now: preparing for accession.” Rama: “We are pleased; we have achieved a great deal in a short space of time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":454884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[28103,27194,26891,27334,28942,28440,27376,34241,26302,33394],"class_list":["post-454894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-albania-in-2","tag-cipro-en","tag-edi-rama-en","tag-enlargement","tag-marta-kos-en","tag-public-administration-en","tag-administration-public-en","tag-riforma-pa","tag-state-of-right-en","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454894"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":454896,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454894\/revisions\/454896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}