The 9th Sub-Committee meeting between Albania and EU on internal market and competition including consumer and health protection took place in Brussels on 17 October 2017. The meeting was co-chaired by Ms. Kleopatra Maliqi, Deputy Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania and Mr. Georg Ziegler Deputy Head of Unit for Albania at the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Commission.

This meeting built on the work of previous sub-committee meetings and was a forum to discuss the implementation of the SAA, as well as approximation of the country legislation to the EU legislation (‘acquis’) in the fields of competition, intellectual property rights, financial services, health and consumer protection.

The Commission highlighted the cross-cutting importance of the topics discussed at that meeting, which are also relevant for Albania's Economic Reform Programme and for the establishment of a regional economic area in the Western Balkans, which was endorsed at the Trieste Summit on 12 July 2017.

The Commission referred to the policy recommendations in all areas covered by the subcommittee in the recent country report. It called on the authorities in Albania to agree on a coordinated harmonisation of legislation at the various levels of governance to the EU legislation.