Germany believes that Albania can successfully conclude all chapters of the accession negotiations with the European Union within 2027. This at a time when the country has 4 open chapters out of 6 in total, while the 5th group is expected to open within this month.
So far, official Tirana has opened negotiations on the "Foundations", "External Relations" and "Internal Market" group chapters, while the "Green Agenda" and the "Resources, Agriculture and Cohesion" group chapter still remain unopened.
" I have to congratulate Albania and the Albanian government for opening four of these six group chapters in the last 8-9 months, since October last year. This is a very, very good chance. And what we can see on a technical level is that the negotiating team is doing a very, very good job because now these four chapters in nine months are a record. I am very, very convinced that with this capacity of the negotiating team, the rest of the group chapters will be opened by the end of the year ," Karl Bergner, Germany's ambassador to Albania, told A2 CNN.
Despite the progress being made on the path towards integration, Ambassador Bergner says the country needs to focus on issues related to the rule of law and the fight against corruption.
“ Focus heavily on the issues that were raised, for example, in the last EU progress report last year, which are areas, the so-called foundations, which is the rule of law with governance and the fight against corruption. These are issues that are also considered of concern to many Albanians I speak to. ”
The objective of the Albanian authorities is to open all group chapters within the year, and for the negotiations to be closed in 2027, paving the way for the EU states to then accept Albania within the European family by 2030. On Albania's journey towards "union", the ambassador says that Germany will be by our country's side to support it.
“ We will examine issues like administrative partnerships in every possible sense to strengthen administrative capacities. And I am very happy that we share this focus with the government, they have committed to doing this, to address these issues that also concern many Albanian people that I speak to. I am very convinced that Albania can achieve many of the objectives that it has set for itself. And we will accompany Albania on this journey. ”
The German ambassador made the comments during an inspection of projects supported by the German Kfw and GIZ in several cities in Albania. (A2 Televizion)
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