Albania has taken another significant step towards membership in the European Union, by opening four new negotiation chapters, bringing the total number of open chapters to 28, within only 11 months – a pace that Prime Minister Edi Rama has described as an ‘absolute record’.

The chapters include strategic fields such as transport, energy, connectivity and the environment, as well as climate change, under the cluster ‘Green Agenda and Sustainable Connectivity’.

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Brussels, Joint conference of Prime Minister Edi Rama with Marie Bjerre, Minister for European Affairs of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Marta Kos, European Commissioner for Enlargement.

Marie Bjerre, Minister for European affairs of Denmark: Thank you. After a full-scale war of aggression in Ukraine, enlargement has become a geopolitical necessity. We need to move on with enlargement for a stronger and more secure EU, and that is exactly why enlargement is a top priority for the Danish EU presidency.

That is why I’m also very pleased that we, with today’s intergovernmental conference with Albania, now opened Cluster 4. This is a significant step for Albania and for the EU, not least because it marks the fifth negotiation cluster to be opened only within a year, leaving only one cluster to be opened.

Today’s conference also shows that enlargement is moving forward, and it shows that real reforms bring real results. Albania has made strong efforts over the years on justice reform, on fighting corruption, and on aligning with the EU foreign policy. Albania has shown clearly that it sees its future in Europe. You are delivering and you deserve recognition.

Of course, we are not yet at the finish line. There is still a lot of work ahead of us but today is a milestone and the direction is clear. As presidency, Denmark will do its part to move the enlargement process forward. It remains essential that candidate countries continue to deliver on reforms and meet the Copenhagen criteria.

Albania, you are doing exactly that. Keep up the good work and thank you very much for your cooperation.

European Commissioner for Enlargement, Mrs. Marta Kos: Dear Prime Minister,

Dear Marie,

The speed of Albania is impressive. I have not yet completed one year in office and this is already the 4th time that we are opening a negotiation cluster with Albania during my mandate. This brings us to 5 clusters open and 28 chapters. Now there is only one cluster left to open, and I have no doubt that we will do that soon. I know that the Danish presidency and all EU member states are fully committed to make progress once all criteria are met and if I use the Olympic spirit, so it will be faster, higher, stronger, and in a team work and what you see here is really a strong triangle supporting the enlargement process as a whole as you have stressed that this is really a geopolitical necessity, dear Marie. So, the success is the reward of the hard work of the authorities of Albania who have been pushing reforms over many years and especially this year despite the elections they have had.

I know that the reforms we are demanding from our candidates are sometimes not easy. They require fundamental changes. But your country, dear Prime Minister, is showing that they can be done. Albania shows that positive change is possible and that EU rewards this positive change.

Keep up the pace. While making sure to keep involving the parliament, civil society, and the private sector, a broad national consensus improves the quality and the societal acceptance of laws.

A special focus should be on critical areas such as justice reform, judicial independence, and fight against corruption, property rights, minority issues, and media freedom to meet the interim benchmarks. This is critical so we can start closing chapters. So, once we have all the clusters open, then we start closing the chapters as soon as possible and to meet your ambition to close all of them by the end of 2027.

The cluster we have opened today is called Green Agenda and Sustainable Connectivity. The reforms it contains will help make sure that Albania’s economic growth goes together with the protection of Albania’s remarkable natural wealth.

Reforms will protect natural resources, improve waste and water management, and reduce air pollution. Transport reforms in this cluster will modernize roads, expand rail networks, and integrate Albania fully with the EU and regional systems.

The energy reforms will promote fair competition, expand renewable sources, and strengthen energy security. All of these make a difference in the lives of Albanian citizens. And they are amongst those in the candidate countries who are the most supportive of the accession process. 91% of the citizens of Albania are supporting EU membership, 92% are trusting the EU and 82% have the image of the EU. These are the highest numbers for all the candidate countries.

Albania’s future is in the EU, there is no doubt about that, and today we are one step closer to achieving this goal.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you very much,

Dear Marie,

Dear Marta,

Minister, Commissioner.

It’s with a lot of gratitude that I want to say a few words, starting by thanking you for your support and for making sure to keep the promise that when we deliver, we are rewarded.

Today we opened another cluster, it’s, as a matter of fact, five clusters in 11 months. In my understanding, it’s a record. And we are looking forward to opening the last cluster before this year ends. I know it’s very ambitious, but it’s what we want to do and hopefully we will, together.

And as you said, and as Marta underlined, this is not just about getting a reward once and forever, but it’s about delivering every day. And we know there are challenges, we know there are a lot of efforts to be made, but we know that there is not any other way, and we have finally had our first ever time in history to choose freely with whom we want to marry. We have been married forcefully with other empires in the past. So, this is an empire we want to be part of, an empire of values, of rights, and an empire of safety and security, where finally our people will be reassured that their freedom and their rights will not be taken away by whomever next.

So, I don’t want to be longer because I’m very much aware Denmark has a lot to do. And the minister here has a long day ahead and other things to do to keep going with the obligations of the Danish presidency. But I want to say something that was very, very pleasant to us when we saw Marta’s playbook, the barometer, and we got to realize that the Danish people are among the biggest supporters of our accession.  So, having the Vikings on our side, it’s quite reassuring, and we must spread this all over Europe, so nobody dares to kind of block our way because between us and the Vikings it’s quite a scary joint venture.

But again, thank you very much, Marie. Thank you very much, Marta.

And as we were talking, or let’s say saying also during the conference, we have now a dedicated ministry, a dedicated minister, exclusive to environment. And I must admit that this is the result also of some pressure from EU channels to do so. Of course, amicable pressure and good arguments and so, we will be full in, and we very much count on your help in terms of the big know-how all over Europe and know-how that has been accumulated by moving forward by example.

So, thank you. Thank you so much.

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The same question for all of you. Albania has been praised for the opening chapters. I want to know what the biggest challenge is ahead in the next two years. Thank you.

European Commissioner for Enlargement, Mrs. Marta Kos: The biggest challenge is, as I have said before, it is not easy to open the clusters, but it is more difficult to close the chapters and do the reforms. And we are sure that we are on a good way, so Albania must deliver the reforms, must now bring everything what is necessary to be able to close the chapters, and of course we are doing this in the teamwork.

The vision of your Prime Minister and all the team here is to close the negotiations at the end of 2027. We support this vision, meaning that once we have that eager candidate country, it is also the responsibility on our side that we support them with all the energy and manpower we have here in Brussels and of course in the Presidencies.

Marie Bjerre, Minister for European affairs of Denmark: I would agree with Commissioner Koss, but when we are opening the clusters, and now five clusters out of six in such a short time, we are doing so because Albania is ready. Albania’s administrative capacity is ready, that is why we are moving forward. Albania wants to join the EU, and Albania is not just the Vikings you have on your side, it is the whole EU, all member states support moving forward with Albania. A future of EU with Albania is very important for all of us.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: No, I would say something very simple, that EU is the bless of a country like our and of countries like ours in the region, a bless that Afghanistan or Iraq or others did not have and through EU we can get all the know-how in building institutions, in building states that delivers for its citizens beyond individualities and beyond personalities, and this is huge and to do this, EU gives you the tools to reinvent yourself as a nation, to reinvent yourself as a country, and to reinvent yourself as a state.

In this process I believe EU will help us as a majority to reinvent ourselves if we want to do so, and in these two years the challenge will be reinventing ourselves by getting closer in our own way of being to the demands, like the demands of this cluster that are huge and are very challenging.

Environment is today a really pressing issue, and demands are challenging even for member states to keep the standards and to protect the standards. So, our challenge is to reinvent ourselves all the way, and that’s why I mentioned also that we have now a separate ministry just for environment, a team that has been growing in the job, a new minister that is the negotiator from our side, so now he has to find also a negotiator to accompany him, and of course this would not have been something that I would have considered some years ago, but today this is very clear.

So, it’s a learning curve for all of us, and we must be humble, we must be devoted to the job, and we must love Europe with all our passion, and love every presidency with passion, and every representative of the presidency with passion. So, this is what we must do.

European Commissioner for Enlargement, Mrs. Marta Kos: I am jealous now.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: No, Marta, you don’t get jobs because you are in the EU, they are just temporary presidencies.

European Commissioner for Enlargement, Mrs. Marta Kos: And I will stay there until the end. Thank you, Edi.