Ireland’s Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence, Thomas Byrne: Today is a really important day for Albania, but also an important day for the European Union. Super Tuesday has ended on a super ending.

I started today at our first succession conference with Marta at 8:00 a.m. This is the fourth we’ve had today. It’s the most successful conference we’ve had in any single day since 2002. And it was a real pleasure to chair the ninth accession conference with Albania, together with Marta and Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Today, Albania has notably started the closing of negotiating chapters. The Council has agreed that Albania is ready to close three negotiating chapters on science and research, on education and culture, and on external relations. Albania has demonstrated its commitment to joining the European Union. With the closure of these chapters, we see Albania entering a new accession phase.
Albania opened all six negotiating clusters within one year and met interim benchmarks in May during Cyprus’s presidency.
We commend the pace, determination, and indeed the consistency, Prime Minister. We encourage Albania, of course, to implement the necessary reforms, in particular on the rule of law, absolutely crucial, the judiciary, anti-corruption, and they all remain the bedrock of the enlargement process of the European Union.

As the presidency, Ireland will support Albania to continue to align its national legislation with the EU, a key step, and advance on the accession process. EU enlargement is a transformational journey. Ireland knows that more than anyone, I would say. It benefits the institutions, it benefits the society, it benefits the economy, not only of the candidate countries but also of the entire European Union. And we look forward in the Council to continuing to advance Albania’s candidacy in the coming months.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you very much.
What happened just now marks indeed another very important milestone in Albania’s irreversible journey towards the European Union. As it was said, we just agreed to close three important negotiating chapters, and this is not simply another step in a long process. It is a clear recognition that Albania is moving forward, that reforms are delivering results, and that our country is increasingly prepared to assume the responsibilities of membership.
And today is important also because it reiterates a very powerful message of this called new era: Albania delivers, the Union delivers. Albania’s progress, the Union does react accordingly, and this is the essence of the process: credible, merit-based, and in both ends.

So I can’t, but thank you, Thomas. It was amazing, very Irish. Super Tuesday. My pleasure. And as I said to you before, I wish you would keep this ambition and have only super, super, super for the rest of your presidency.
And thank you, Marta, for being stubbornly patient and for keeping us on track all the time, no matter the noise, no matter the obstacles.
We are bringing European standards closer to our citizens, strengthening our institutions, creating more opportunities, and building the Albania that we want to see as a full member of the European Union. And the very best proof of it is that people want more and people are less and less tolerant about what does not yet work.
So we have to keep going, and we have to deliver for our people. And there is nothing better than delivering on the basis of this negotiation framework, which is about increasing the standards and strengthening the institutions in our own country.

European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos: Dear Prime Minister Edi Rama, dear Minister, dear Thomas. Today we closed, as we have heard, the first three chapters with Albania. This is a big moment for Albania on its path to the European Union.
This is a Super Tuesday for enlargement, and Albania is a part of it. We closed chapters on research and innovation, on education and culture, and on external relations. Three are done, 30 more to go.
These are areas where Albania is already part of the European family in practice. Albania has been fully aligned with the foreign policy of the EU for many years, and Albanian universities are part of Europe’s research and innovation networks. The country is participating in Horizon Europe, and more than 50,000 Albanian students have taken part in Erasmus+ since the program launched in 2014.
Congratulations to all our Albanian friends for their work and these achievements. This was possible because Albania met the interim benchmarks on the rule of law last month. The interim benchmarks are a gateway that every candidate country must pass through before it can start closing negotiating chapters.
But let me be clear, this is also an interim step, which means that reforms in this area need to be pursued and deepened. The link between progress in the accession and compliance with fundamentals will continue to be a guiding principle as Albania moves towards its ambitious objective of closing all negotiating chapters by the end of 2027. For this, we encourage continuing progress on the rule of law and fundamental rights, justice system, anti-corruption, and fight against organised crime.
This is why we now count on Albania to double down on the necessary reforms and come to decisions in a transparent, accountable, and inclusive way. This must involve all political forces, civil society, and the general public. And speaking of the general public, we have the latest results from our perception survey. In Albania, 92 per cent of the citizens are in favour of EU membership. 94 per cent of citizens think that accession will bring more advantages than disadvantages, and 93 per cent trust the European Union. The best results for all the candidate countries.
Reforms that serve Albanians can only succeed if everyone is affected, has a chance to be heard, and is involved. And this is how EU accession becomes a transformational process for candidates. Political leadership and public support in favour of EU accession are beyond doubt and are a strong recipe for success. It is in your hands now to deliver on the expectations of the Albanian people by intensifying alignment with EU rules and delivering on the reforms that matter most to them.
I will be on your side until the end of my mandate, and Thomas will be with you until the end of this year.

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-Prime Minister Rama, three chapters are provisionally closed. What is the state of progress on the remaining 30? So, like an overall state of progress.
I think for Commissioner Kos and Minister, in one of the previous conferences, sorry, I don’t remember which one, it was a very long day, you said that you don’t have rest in the coming weeks. And probably in the coming weeks, we will have other accession conferences. So I wanted to understand what can we expect from the next weeks and months, and can we expect accession conference before the General Affairs Council on the, I think, 22nd of September.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Well, the important thing is that so far we are on track with a very ambitious calendar that has been discussed and agreed in our mutual interaction with the Commission. And thanks to the relentless homework that we have done so far.

This being said, the calendar becomes more and more ambitious, and we have to become more and more relentless in our work. If the atmosphere continues to be the one that we are experiencing in the last period, everything will be in place, and every homework will be done accordingly. If the atmosphere changes, then we’ll see. But so far, we have no reason to believe that it will be a change of atmosphere.

Yesterday, in the meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, there was also an angle about this process for the actively negotiating countries. And what one could sense easily was that everyone is eager to push, and everyone is eager to find even faster ways to make it possible.

So I’m very, very optimistic in the Albanian way, meaning tragically optimistic. So ready to go and ready to face adversity if it comes up. But as I said in the introduction, the Irish presidency is of comfort because Ireland is a country that has shown by example that exponential progress is possible, and Irish people do not take anything but excellence as a goal. So, to be excellent in the goal of the presidency is to be able to close many more chapters with us and with others until the end of the year. And we trust our Irish friends, we trust the work we are doing with the Commission, and we trust the partners. So so far, so good.

Ireland’s Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence, Thomas Byrne: What I can say is that we will continue to progress this agenda. We’ve made enlargement a key part of our presidency priorities. We see big momentum in the process now, not just within the European Union member states, but within the accession countries as well, in terms of the reforms they’re making.
And when we see benchmarks being reached, standards being set, we will be in a position then to have further accession conferences. It’s certainly our ambition to do so.
But we knew this one was coming, but it was literally days’ notice to make sure that we had this, and we got everything right. So we will continue that work until the summer break and then immediately afterwards. And two months ago, I couldn’t have predicted that this would take place today, that we’d have Super Tuesday.

I can’t really predict what’s happening in two months, except that the Irish presidency, my team, the Department of Foreign Affairs staff who are working on the Council presidency will continue to pursue this enlargement with vigour and respond to what Albania and other accession countries are doing.
And we certainly are extremely open and excited by the prospect of further enlargement conferences.

-So, to the Prime Minister, you’ve stated that there is no alternative to EU membership for Albania, yet your government has backed Jared Kushner’s proposed luxury resort, a project that has prompted concerns in Brussels about environmental standards and Albania’s accession process. How do you justify supporting a project that the Commission has publicly linked to concerns about your accession bid?
And to the Commissioner, from your point of view, does the current protest in Albania reveal issues that could affect Albania’s ability to meet EU accession criteria?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Well, I’ve learned from my long years in office that when you say Brussels, it’s a very complex word. There are many bodies, and there are many voices in Brussels. For us, all voices in Brussels are very much respectable, but there is one voice that we take very seriously, which is the voice of the Commission.
And so far, I must tell you that the Commission is on top of it by being very well informed based on the facts. And the reason why I have always said for a long time that there is in this world of very chaotic information systems and very disputable points of view where the truth finds less and less space and the lies and the half-truths and falsehoods find more and more space, the Commission remains the stronghold of objectivity because the Commission works on facts, works on data and works on verified sources.
So I’m sure that you, too, if you are interested in facts, in data, in verified sources, you will realise that there is nothing to worry. The project is still a work in progress. The project is nowhere to be seen so far because it has not been finalised.
An environmental impact assessment is ongoing. Everything is being done by the book since day one. It doesn’t matter the names. Naming names is not something that helps us to get to the truth. And when I say by the book, there is only one book for us that counts, which is the European Union accession book and the European Union standards book.

So just the idea that Albania and the Albanian government would go forward with something that is not in full compliance with the holy book of religious and atheists in Albania, which is the European Union standards and principles, is preposterous.

So there is nothing to worry about, zero. We’ll do a project that will be a subject of pride for Albania and for Europe. And this is my ambition. Albania should make it happen for itself and for Europe.
And of course, in the process, we will be, as we have been until now, very, very rigorous in asking nothing but the highest standards, nothing but something that will make everyone proud for having this thing in the middle of Europe.
Otherwise, it will not happen.

European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos: Indeed, it won’t happen. So we don’t see the European paths of Albania endangered. One of the proofs is today’s event, when we have closed three chapters. Regarding the specific project, environmental protection is part of the EU membership criteria. And there are currently a number of laws that need to be changed to meet these criteria. Already before these protests started, we agreed with Albania that this year they would repeal the 2024 amendments to the law on protected areas and repeal the law on strategic investors. And those changes will have to be made to close the negotiation chapter 27 on environment and climate change.
And I would encourage the authorities, as we have heard, to do so as soon as possible. And we know that this is a very important issue in the Albanian public debate. So protests are part of wider democratic processes, and how countries deal with protests is part of the process of strengthening democratic and pluralistic societies. I can only and I am encouraging the Albanian government to take steps to address the concerns of their citizens, too. But what I have said, the process in the accession process is an ongoing process. Chapter 27 is one of the most demanding. So, of course, not just because of this protest, mostly because Albania has to align the legislation, which we agreed on when we opened the clusters, we are sure that nothing can happen in this field that will not be aligned with the European legislation.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Can I just I have to make sure that there is no other misinterpretation of wording? So we have to repeal the law on strategic investments, which is something that we have agreed on for some time, because that law has completed its mission, and we are also working closely with the Commission on what will replace it. When it comes to the other law, we have nothing to repeal, although there has been a resolution in the European Parliament asking for that. But we have to address the law based on all European standards and to change within that law everything that is not in compliance with the European standards.
Because repealing, it means cancelling. And the strategic investment law will be cancelled, while the law on protected zones is one of the best laws we have. It’s a law that we have worked very hard to make. It’s the first law in the country of protected areas. We didn’t have one before, as we didn’t have many other things before.
And we have to address specific parts that have to be in full compliance with European Union standards. And for this also, as we speak, we are working with the Commission. But the repeal is not the word we take as a word that we have to comply with. It’s not repealing. It’s just adopting it 100% with the European Union standards.
The repeal is for the strategic investment law. There are two different things, just so as not to get lost in translation as it happens.

– So across the four Super Tuesday countries today, they all have ambitious dates in mind for when they’ll complete each step of the process and when they will join. I’m not wondering what you think about those dates because I think I know by now, but I’m wondering what you might plan to do to get dates in the heads of the current EU member states and if you maybe support the idea or will work towards the idea of getting countries to agree to target dates in the autumn when they’re going to talk about enlargement.
The idea is that setting a target date is very motivational and will help these candidates get in as soon as possible.
Ireland’s Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence Thomas Byrne: Well, what we have is a process at the moment that is moving forward now at a pace.
So I think we continue that process. We react when the applicant countries have completed the work that they have to do, and we move forward on that basis.
And we’ve seen with Montenegro, for example, we’ve established the treaty on the drafting of the group and the drafting of the accession treaty. That’s an important step. So all this work has to happen, and our ambition is to drive it forward and to create a situation where the technical work has been done, which is very meaningful and quite detailed, but that creates its own political momentum. And even the idea of all of these accession conferences today, I think, has created another momentum in itself and that the enlargement is being portrayed as a reality, which it is to the wider public.
So I think we just need to keep on that process. We certainly hope that in the case of Montenegro to finish this year. And in the meantime, we’re drafting the treaty on accession. Now, it is a matter for member states at the end of the day to ratify accession. So I know that Albania and the other accession countries are engaging bilaterally all across the European Union.

Prime Minister Rama was at the Coalition of the Willing, and there are so many different formats that I’m sure all the ministers are at. And that sort of work is very, very important too. But from an Irish presidency point of view, we know that we’ve a lot of work to do. We hope that we have a lot of work to do, and we’ll be extremely practical about it, working with the Commission on that. But we need to show the people that what they’re doing is worthwhile. And I think that requires us just to continue this process at pace.

We are going to have a discussion of the leaders at the European Council in October. And that could be a very significant moment as well because I want our Prime Minister and President Costa to be able to say to the leaders, look, we have made this progress relatively quickly. Now, let’s move forward together and make this real.

European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos: As you know, enlargement doesn’t work with dates. But the more the country is coming towards the end of the technical part of the accession, the more we can say about it or the more we can use the years. So we are supporting Montenegro in closing negotiations until the end of ’26. This is the vision they have set for themselves. And as Thomas has said, later on, we will see how fast the ratification process will go.
Then we support the vision of the Albanian government to close all the chapters by the end of ’27. And we are supporting the vision of the government of Moldova to close all the chapters until the end of ’20 until the end of ’28. So we need everybody on board. We need the first candidates to deliver. It’s not easy.
I’m also speaking out of my experiences when Slovenia was a candidate country, and in the meantime, probably the ACQUIS was three times bigger than it was years back when we negotiated. Then, of course, the candidates have to deliver. Then we need the European Commission pushing the team all the time.
Many of them are here with me today. With the same number of my coworkers, we have to deliver more. So, you know, when somebody is saying that we are really pushing for the enlargement process in the sense of giving some privileges to the candidate countries, this is not the truth.
We are working faster and more effectively. I could tell you many proofs, like the fastest screening process we have had for Ukraine and Moldova, or also how we have done with the front loading. And of course, we need the member states. And we need a good president who is actually the master of the process. And I’m very happy that in the last four presidencies, we’ve been lucky that every presidency has had enlargement as a top priority. And this is, for me, a very good, if I may say so, recipe.
But it is really a lot of work. I tell you, you know, my team or my teams, which are working with the candidate countries, are checking the legislation. And when I say my team, it is not only my ‘DG ENEST’. These are all DGs. So all the director generals, all the commissioners have to work for this. Only based on this, we can say so. So I’m positive about 28 by 28 for Montenegro. But what Thomas you have said is very important. What has happened today, of course, you know, we are stressing this Super Tuesday, but we are also stressing this special day because it motivates us all.
I can see the special energy which is evolving, you know, in other candidates. When Albania, for example, makes progress and moves forward, the other candidate countries are also encouraged and motivated.

Montenegro, now that it has a financial package and knows how much it will cost and how much it will contribute, also encourages the others. I therefore expect this positive energy to give us even more energy for the upcoming intergovernmental conferences. There will be many more, Thomas, during the Irish Presidency.

Ireland’s Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence, Thomas Byrne: I would like to thank you, Marta, your team, the Albanian team, and my own team seated over there. Many people have worked to make this possible. We would like to thank all of you for the work you have done and for the work you will continue to do.