Thewesternbalkans.
According to the information from the European Commission and the Danish presidency of the European Council, on 16th of September 2025 it was held the 6th Inter-Governmental Conference EU-Albania and opening negotiations on Cluster 4 – “Green Agenda and Sustainable Connectivity”.
Albania was represented by the Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Danish Presidency by the minister for EU – Merry Bjerre.
In her statement after the meeting the European Commissioner for enlargement Marta Kos underlined that “Albania’s speed is impressive! I have not yet even been in office for a year, but this is already the fourth time we are opening a negotiation cluster with Albania during my mandate” and this brings us to 5 open clusters. That are 28 open chapters”, said Marts Kos.
She also expressed her opinion that the last cluster will be open without doubt very soon because the Danish Presidency and all EU Member States are fully committed to make progress, once all criteria are met.
Marta Kos evaluated this success as a result of hard work of the authorities of Albania, who have been pushing reforms over many years regardless that the reforms EU is demanding from the candidates are not easy and require fundamental changes. Albania is showing that they can be done. Albania shows that positive change is possible. And that the EU rewards positive change.
According to Marta Kos, for the next period 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 as soon as possible, and to meet Albanian ambition to close all of them by 2027.
“The reforms linked with cluster 4 will help make sure that Albania’s economic growth goes hand in hand with the protection of Albania’s remarkable natural wealth. Reforms will protect natural resources, improve waste and water management and reduce air pollution. The transport reforms in this cluster will modernize roads, expand rail networks, and integrate Albania fully with EU and regional systems. The energy reforms will promote fair competition, expand renewable sources, and strengthen energy security “, added Marta Kos.
Comments: Albania continues to move forward with full speed in the process of negotiating EU membership, and the European Commission is very cooperative in this regard. As we have already seen, they are quite inventive in Tirana regarding the reform process and especially in their reporting – Program Diella. Edi Rama has already become everybody’s friend among European leaders, and Marta Kos’s enthusiasm shows that he is a favorite role model for EU enlargement.
