The European Union (EU) temporarily closed the science and research, education and culture and foreign relations chapters in the membership negotiations with Albania.
According to the statement made by the EU Council, at the 9th Accession Conference held in Brussels, it was decided to temporarily close the 25th chapter (science and research), the 26th chapter (education and culture) and the 30th chapter (foreign relations) in the membership negotiations.
At the previous Accession Conference held in May, it was confirmed that Albania fulfilled the intermediate criteria in the 1st set of chapters titled "Core Issues".
Making a statement on behalf of Ireland, the Term President of the EU Council, Thomas Byrne, Minister of State for European Affairs and Defense, stated that the first three negotiation chapters were temporarily closed after Albania met the criteria regarding the rule of law, and stated that this showed the commitment of both Albania and the EU to the country's European integration process.
Thus, Albania opened all 33 chapters that were planned to be opened in the membership negotiations. Agreements reached on certain chapters during the negotiations will not be final until a general agreement is reached on all chapters.
Albania, which applied for membership in the EU in April 2009, gained candidate country status in June 2014 and officially started accession negotiations with the EU in July 2022.
Within the scope of the recently accelerated expansion process, the EU has also started negotiations under the title of "foreign relations" with Moldova and Ukraine, while temporarily closing the competition policy and customs union chapters with Montenegro.