The Council of the European Union announced that the eighth meeting of the Accession Conference with Albania will take place on May 26, 2026, in Brussels.

“This meeting will serve to confirm Albania’s fulfillment of the interim benchmarks, as well as to define the closing benchmarks for Cluster 1 ‘Fundamentals’. This cluster includes key areas of the integration process, such as the functioning of democratic institutions and public administration reform.

This framework also includes Chapter 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights) and Chapter 24 (Justice, Freedom and Security), as well as the economic criteria related to Chapter 5 (Public Procurement), Chapter 18 (Statistics), and Chapter 32 (Financial Control),” the statement said.

The meeting is considered an important step in the process of Albania’s accession negotiations with the European Union.