Albania has moved a step further down its path to the European Union, temporarily closing three chapters of the accession process. But the analysis was published by EUNews. It states that despite the technical progress, the country continues to fall behind in the implementation of basic reforms that will set the pace of negotiations until membership, writes politiko.al.
The European Union decided to close three chapters for Albania, i.e., Science and Research (25), Education and Culture (26), and External Relations (30). These are the first chapters that Tirana has managed to close, less than two months after the EU assessed that the country was ready to enter this phase of negotiations.
But these chapters, EUNews.it reports, are among the least problematic in the negotiation process, and they do not directly affect the reforms Brussels deems crucial for membership.
The Irish minister for European affairs, Thomas Byrne, whose country holds the current presidency of the Council of the European Union, congratulated Albania for the “significant progress” but at the same time urged Tirana not to slow down the pace of reforms. Albania has made great progress. It has to now undertake substantial reforms to go ahead in the next months,” Byrne stated, quoted by EUNews.it.
Montenegro is well aheMontenegro,gro on the saday,day again confirmed its position as the most advanced country on the way to the European Union. Montenegro has also provisionally closed two more negotiation chapters, thus bringing the total number of closed chapters to 18. Thomas Byrne said Montenegro was the ‘leader’ of enlargement and had cleared more than half of the negotiation process.
At the same time, Moldova has also started to open a new round of negotiation chapters, although at an earlier stage.
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