Tirana (Photo: PrintScreen YouTube)
The first negotiation cluster for Albania will be opened at the EU-Albania Intergovernmental Conference in Luxembourg, on Oct. 15.
The holding of this conference was made possible after the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper II) adopted the EU's joint position on opening Cluster 1 in Albania's EU membership negotiations on Oct. 11.
Albania will be the first candidate country to open accession negotiations under the revised enlargement methodology. "Accelerating EU enlargement is a key goal for the Hungarian presidency over the Union... and Hungary has achieved this," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said in a Facebook post, heralding Albania’s first negotiation cluster.
Albania's path to the EU has long been tied to that of North Macedonia. However, at the end of September, EU ambassadors decided to separate them, as the opening of chapters for North Macedonia is likely to remain stalled over disputes between Skopje and Sofia, which directly affects Albania's progress in the pre-accession process.
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