Accession of Albania to the European Union

The European Commission's annual progress reports for six Western Balkan countries who hope to become EU members - plus Turkey - were published on Tuesday, assessing their achievements and shortcomings noted during the period between June 2020 and June 2021.

North Macedonia 'makes progress in key areas'

As the European Council of Ministers is set to convene on Tuesday in Luxembourg, North Macedonia and Albania fear they will not get what they hoped for - a date for a start to their EU accession talks.

Romania, who holds the EU presidency, envisaged that day as the possible date for an intergovernmental conference, and it is currently assesed that it would be realistic to expect the opening of two new chapters at most.

The European Parliament is calling for a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Konstantinos Katsifas, a 35-year-old ethnic Greek man who was fatally shot by Albanian authorities in the southern village of Bularat at the end of last month in what was described by Albanian authorities as an exchange of fire.

European Union leaders have agreed to open membership talks with Macedonia and Albania by the end of 2019, if both Balkan aspirants show enough progress in judicial and anti-corruption reforms.

With Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva as chair, EU Member States today set out the path towards opening of accession negotiations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania in June 2019.

EU governments agreed on Tuesday (26 June) to delay a decision to start accession talks with Macedonia and Albania until next year, if the two Balkan countries carried out more reforms.

The European Commission called on Tuesday for the start of EU accession negotiations with Albania and Macedonia.

"A step forward for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania is a step forward for the entire west Balkans region," said the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini.

Johannes Hahn has said that Serbia has taken major steps on its EU path in the past year, which brings it closer to opening the first negotiation chapters.

Albania has been granted an EU candidate status on Tuesday, during the meeting of EU ministers in Luxembourg.

"Albania congratulations on candidate status just agreed by ministers: acknowledgement of reform efforts, encouragement for more”, EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele wrote on Twitter.