Albania and the European Union

The sequence so far

• 2006 — Stabilisation and Association Agreement signed (in force 2009).
• 2009 — Application for EU membership submitted; visa-free Schengen travel granted to Albanian citizens in 2010.
• June 2014 — Granted candidate status.
• March 2020 — The Council agreed to open accession negotiations.
• July 2022 — The first intergovernmental conference held; negotiations formally opened.
• 2023 onward — Screening of the acquis and the opening of negotiating clusters.

From isolation to application

Communist Albania had no relations with the European Community at all. Diplomatic ties were established in 1991, as the one-party state ended, and a trade and cooperation agreement followed in 1992. For most of the 1990s, though, the relationship was about crisis rather than membership: the collapse of the pyramid schemes in 1997 brought the state close to breakdown, and an Italian-led multinational force, Operation Alba, was deployed to secure aid deliveries and elections.

Two events changed the picture. In 1999 Albania took in hundreds of thousands of refugees from Kosovo and became a close partner of NATO and the EU during the war. In 2003 the EU's Thessaloniki summit promised every Western Balkan country a 'European perspective', the commitment on which Albania's agreement, application and candidacy were then built.

What the process actually is

Accession means adopting the entire body of EU law, the acquis, divided into negotiating chapters grouped in clusters. Chapters open and close as the Commission assesses progress. Cluster 1, covering the rule of law, judiciary, fundamental rights and public procurement, is opened first and closed last — it sets the pace for everything else.

Where the difficulty is

The European Commission's annual reports on Albania have consistently identified the same areas: judicial reform and the vetting of judges and prosecutors, the fight against corruption and organised crime, media freedom, property rights and public administration.

Albania's judicial vetting process, which reassessed every judge and prosecutor in the country, is the most far-reaching reform of its kind attempted anywhere in the region, and removed a large proportion of the judiciary.

A note on dates

Target dates for Albanian accession have been suggested by various governments and institutions. None of them is binding. This Atlas reports the formal position and the Commission's own assessments; it does not predict a date.

For the current position, the authoritative sources are the European Commission's annual enlargement package and the Council's conclusions.