Albania will open the first chapter of European Union accession talks in Luxembourg on Tuesday, seeking to move forward in its decade-long quest to join the 27-nation bloc.
Tuesday’s accession conference will be the second held between the EU and Albania since it became a candidate country in 2014. It will allow Brussels to scrutinise the so-called “basics” of accession, including how the country respects human rights, the rule of law and the functioning of democratic institutions.
Negotiations on these issues will continue until the very end of the accession talks, and progress on Brussels’ demands will determine the overall pace of the process.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó told a press conference that Albania fully meets the criteria for negotiations and the state’s admission to the EU will benefit all members of the union. Szijjártó called for speeding up the EU accession process for all Western Balkan states. However, he noted that Albania’s accession to the community would be “long and complex,” the exact timing of the state’s accession to the EU is not set, and the negotiations could last years.
The talks were approved by EU ambassadors in late September after Albania split from neighbouring North Macedonia in its EU bid amid what is seen as renewed tensions between Skopje’s nationalist government and its EU neighbours.
EU ambassador to Albania Silvio Gonzato told Euronews that the talks could lead to Tirana joining Montenegro as a “front-runner” to apply to join the bloc. Gonzato said in September:
Albania does not have a plan B. There is a clear cross-party consensus on bringing Albania into the EU.
Albania was granted candidate status for EU accession in 2014, in 2020 the EU Council approved the start of accession negotiations and started the process in 2022. It was only on October 11 that the Committee of Permanent Representatives “adopted the EU common position opening the first negotiating bloc to Albania,” and an intergovernmental conference is held on October 15.
