European Union today opens negotiations for Albania, Northern Macedonia

This Tuesday marks the day Albania's negotiations for membership in the European Union start.

According to the published agenda, Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama will meet with Macedonian counterpart Dimitar Kovacevski and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leenen at 08:30.

30 minutes later, they will hold a joint press conference. At 11:00, the First Intergovernmental Conference will be held, and at 12:30, Rama will have a joint press conference with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky and EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi.

There is also a meeting planned at 1500 p.m., of Albania's chief official with the European Union, Zef Mazi.

Later, at 6:00, there will be a joint reception of the Albanian delegation with the Macedonian one, in case of opening negotiations.

The first intergovernmental conference between the EU and Albania to be held on Tuesday is only the beginning of a long road, which will last for at least a decade, which must end with the country's full integration into the European family.

The opening of negotiations also means Albania's “facto” partition from Northern Macedonia on the path to integration, despite precisely Bulgarian veto of the official understanding that for more than two years held the process with Tirana in place.

The pace of negotiations will depend on the speed of reforms, and according to him the most optimistic scenario for Albania's full EU membership is 2032. Experts see with concern the lack of qualified people in public administration to be at the level of technical negotiations with EU countries. /A2/