The conference is expected to confirm Albania’s fulfillment of interim benchmarks and define the closing benchmarks for the cluster, which remains central to the overall progress of the country’s EU accession talks.

According to the agenda published by the EU, the eighth conference will take place on the sidelines of the EU General Affairs Council and will be chaired by Cyprus Deputy Minister for European Affairs Marilena Raouna.

The Albanian delegation will be led by Prime Minister Edi Rama, while the European Union side will be headed by Raouna, with the participation of EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos.

The conference is scheduled to begin at around 7:00 p.m. in Brussels and will be followed by a press conference.

Cluster 1 covers key areas of the accession process, including:

Chapter 23 – Judiciary and Fundamental Rights

Chapter 24 – Justice, Freedom and Security

Functioning of democratic institutions

Public administration reform

Economic membership criteria

Chapter 5 – Public Procurement

Chapter 18 – Statistics

Chapter 32 – Financial Control

The meeting follows a series of intergovernmental conferences that led to the opening of all negotiating clusters, including Fundamentals, Internal Market, Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth, Green Agenda and Sustainable Connectivity, Resources, Agriculture and Cohesion, and External Relations.

The eighth conference is seen as an important moment in the current phase of negotiations, as it focuses on concluding the interim conditions that will determine the pace of Albania’s European integration process.

Albania’s accession talks with the European Union are continuing under the bloc’s revised enlargement methodology, under which progress in Cluster 1, “Fundamentals,” remains decisive for the overall pace of the country’s path toward EU membership.

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