TIRANA, May 23 /ATA/ – Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Ferit Hoxha said on Saturday that the upcoming eighth Intergovernmental Conference with the European Union would mark another milestone in Albania’s accession process.
Speaking during a panel on enlargement and current geopolitical trends at the GLOBSEC Forum in Prague, Hoxha reaffirmed that European integration remains Albania’s “strategic and irreversible choice.”
“EU accession remains our top national priority,” Hoxha said, adding that the process has driven reforms, strengthened institutions and supported Albania’s transformation into “a functional democracy based on the rule of law.”
Hoxha said the opening of all 33 negotiation chapters in what he described as record time reflected both Albania’s commitment to reforms and the political backing of EU institutions and member states.
He said the eighth Intergovernmental Conference, scheduled for May 26, would focus on the Interim Benchmark Assessment Report (IBAR) and formally confirm Albania’s fulfillment of interim benchmarks under Cluster 1, known as “Fundamentals,” while also setting the closing benchmarks for the cluster.
According to Hoxha, EU enlargement has become increasingly important in the context of Europe’s broader security and stability challenges.
“We support and embrace gradual integration and the ‘access before membership’ approach, so that citizens and businesses can already experience the tangible benefits of integration on the road toward EU membership by 2030,” he said.
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