European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Tirana on Wednesday, weeks before Brussels is expected to formally endorse the government's goal of concluding EU accession talks by the end of 2027.
She will meet President Bajram Begaj and Prime Minister Edi Rama, Commission spokesperson Olof Gill told reporters in Brussels.
The visit comes as the Commission drafts a roadmap that, according to EU officials cited by Euronews, will acknowledge Albania's aim to close all negotiating chapters by December 2027.
This would mark a change in Brussels' position. Rama and his ministers have for months described 2027 as a date agreed with the Commission, but the Commission has backed the ambition without committing to a deadline, insisting that enlargement is based on merit.
In July, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said that "enlargement doesn't work with dates", while adding that timelines become more concrete as a country nears the end of the technical process.
In her State of the Union address this month, von der Leyen said the Commission would soon propose roadmaps "for the candidates that have made most progress", naming Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans.
The roadmaps will be published with the annual enlargement package in late October. They are expected to set indicative timelines, an approach compared to the 2002 strategy that led to the "Big Bang" enlargement of 2004.
A date, with a checklist
The endorsement will come with conditions. The Commission is also preparing a closing benchmark assessment report on whether Albania has met its targets on the rule of law and other "fundamentals". It plans to attach a list of the reforms and results Tirana still needs to deliver.
Brussels used the same method with Montenegro, and an EU official told Euronews the Commission wants to repeat it.
For the government, this means the date it has campaigned on will come with a public checklist. How much of that list covers justice reform, anti-corruption results and institutional independence will show whether 2027 is a timeline or a slogan.
The regional tour
After Tirana, von der Leyen will travel on Thursday to Pristina to meet Acting President Albulena Haxhiu and Prime Minister Albin Kurti. She then goes to Podgorica to meet President Jakov Milatović and Prime Minister Milojko Spajić before finishing in Skopje, where she will meet with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski.
It is her sixth annual visit to the region.
Serbia and Bosnia postponed
Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are not on the itinerary. The Commission said von der Leyen would visit both later because of upcoming elections. Serbia votes in a parliamentary election on 25 October.
The decision also follows weeks of tension with Belgrade over Ratko Mladić, the Bosnian Serb wartime commander convicted of genocide. Mladić died in The Hague on 27 August while serving a life sentence.
Serbia's justice minister and the president of Republika Srpska attended a commemoration for him at the state-owned Army House in Belgrade, and thousands attended his funeral on 7 September, led by Patriarch Porfirije.
Kos had called the days before the burial an important test for Belgrade. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić called her remarks stupid.
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