TIRANA, June 4 /ATA/ Minister of State and chief negotiator Majlinda Dhuka emphasized on Tuesday that Albania, on its pathway to EU membership, have laid down all the actions to meet the criteria for membership by 2030.
Dhuka, who was present on Tuesday at the hearing in the Parliamentary Committee for European Affairs, spoke about the progress of the measures taken within the screening process, stressing that “Albania successfully completed the screening process and received positive evaluations from the European Commission and member countries.”
“It was a broad, comprehensive and very intensive process. About 1800 public officials from 157 public institutions participated in the screening process. Of the 157 public institutions involved, 32 are independent institutions, the majority of which about 27 of them have the legal obligation to report directly to the Parliament of Albania. The great preparatory work carried out by the negotiation team included 777 presentations on various issues related to the criteria for the European Union membership, which were delivered at joint meetings with the European Commission. About 350 coordination meetings of the national negotiation team and 126 preparatory training sessions have been held as part of their preparation,” Dhuka underlined.
At the end of the screening process, Dhuka continued, Albania should present the conditions for the opening of negotiations for the first group of 8 chapters known as the “Fundamentals” cluster.
“The rapprochement with the European Union requires an alignment of the legal political administrative framework and the economic and social system of the country. At the core of this alignment is the consolidation of the rule of law, the reform of the public administration and functioning democratic institutions, with the Assembly of the Republic of Albania at its heart. These issues also constitute the conditions for the opening of accession negotiations for the first cluster of the “Fundamentals” chapters,” Dhuka said.
Dhuka said that “Albania as of December 2023 has met all the technical conditions of the EU for the opening of accession negotiations for the first cluster of the “Fundamentals” chapters. During the entire screening process, we worked in parallel, very intensively, on the conditions for the opening of negotiations, which are two; the roadmap for the rule of law, for the functioning of democratic institutions and the roadmap for the reform in the public administration.”
“Albania prepared the two roadmaps and submitted them to the EU on December 13, 2023, fulfilling the conditions for the opening of accession negotiations. These roadmaps contain the actions of a legislative, reforming, institutional nature that Albania will take in the period 2024-2030 in order to meet the criteria for membership in the EU”, added Dhuka.
Regarding the recommendations and actions, Dhuka said that “the EU progress report for 2023 contains 761 recommendations for Albania, of which 390 recommendations or over 51% belong to the first cluster of the “Fundamentals” chapters, while the rest belong to other themes.”
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