As part of REUNIR’s EU Presidency briefings, the coordinator presented the main aims and lines of investigation of the project to Ambassador Károly Grúber of the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU. They had an open exchange on the application of the ‘new’ enlargement methodology of February 2020 to discussions in the Council’s Working Party on Enlargement (COELA) on Albania’s screening report. Member state ambassadors in COREPER decided on 26 September to move Albania to the next stage of its bid to join the EU by holding the second Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on the “fundamentals” cluster on 15 October. The five negotiating chapters in Cluster 1 include the crucial Chapters 23 and 24, which cover rule of law issues and determine the pace of the overall progress towards membership.

The release from prison of an ethnic Greek mayor of a southern Albanian town, who was elected to the European Parliament in June despite being held on charges of vote-buying, allegations that were heavily contested by Athens, and Tirana’s readiness to address concerns over minority rights are believed to have played a major role in securing the EU’s unanimous backing to move forward.

North Macedonia, which held its first IGC together with Albania in July 2022, is not expected to advance on its pre-accession track due to the continuation of Bulgaria’s veto policy over Skopje’s refusal to implement the 2022 French proposal on the resolution of identity issues, which includes amending the country’s Constitution.