Albania on Monday closed the first three chapters of its accession negotiations with the European Union: Chapter 25 on Science and Research, Chapter 26 on Education and Culture, and Chapter 31 on Foreign, Security and Defence Policy(External Relations).
To mark the occasion, an intergovernmental conference was held in Brussels, attended by Prime Minister Edi Rama and European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos.
These three chapters are considered among the easiest to close because EU legislation in these policy areas is relatively limited. By comparison, Montenegro opened and closed these chapters on the same day.
It took Albania a relatively long time to close them: negotiations on Chapter 31 were opened in December 2024, while negotiations on Chapters 25 and 26 were opened in May 2025.
Montenegro remains the country closest to EU membership. Yesterday, it closed two additional negotiation chapters, bringing its total to 18 of the 33 negotiation chapters provisionally closed.
