Prime Minister Edi Rama took part today in the fourth Albania-EU Intergovernmental Conference, held in Luxembourg, where Albania opened the second cluster of negotiations with the European Union – “The Internal Market.”

This negotiation cluster includes: Chapter 1 (Free Movement of Goods), Chapter 2 (Free Movement of Workers), Chapter 3 (Right of Establishment and Freedom to Provide Services), Chapter 4 (Free Movement of Capital), Chapter 6 (Company Law), Chapter 7 (Intellectual Property Law), Chapter 8 (Competition Policy), Chapter 9 (Financial Services), and Chapter 28 (Consumer and Health Protection).

At the conclusion of the Conference proceedings, Prime Minister Edi Rama, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski, and EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos held a joint press conference.

Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski: I’d like to express my condolences to the families of the 34 victims of the Russian missile attack on Sumy. My thoughts are also with the more than 100 people who suffered injuries and of course I wish them a speedy recovery.

An attack with ballistic missiles targeting civilian places in a city center could not be called otherwise than a war crime. And as you know a similar attack happened in Kryvyi Rih shortly before. Now there is an interpretation put on these events as some kind of targeting mistake. If you target civilian occupied cities you are bound to kill civilians.

What was the mistake? Was another city supposed to be struck? Are we to believe that Russian missiles are so imprecise that they can’t hit the right city? No, I think this is a cynical response by President Putin to America’s goodwill and to the willingness of Ukraine to agree to an unconditional ceasefire from which we should draw conclusions.

Namely that Russia has not yet reduced its level of ambitions. It still wants to deny Ukraine the right to exist as an independent nation. It still wants to conquer Ukraine. Of course they would prefer to do it by peaceful means. When Putin says peace, he means that he demands the victim of his aggression, Ukraine, to capitulate. That will not happen and to convince him that it will not happen we should increase pressure. And I hope President Trump draws the right conclusion. In the current overall challenging geopolitical situation enlargement remains of course at the front of EU’s policy agenda. The Polish Presidency supports a merit-based enlargement of the EU and now more than ever welcoming new members is a geostrategic investment in peace, security, stability and prosperity. The objective of the Polish Presidency is to make overall progress in the enlargement process both in the eastern direction and with regard to the Western Balkans.

Ambitious enlargement policy is something that we have been tirelessly working on since the beginning of the Presidency, of course hand in hand with the Commission. I concluded 2024 with a visit to Albania and at the very beginning of 2025 I had a chance to host Commissioner Kos in Warsaw. The EU enlargement was of course at the core of those talks. I am happy that we are here today together with Prime Minister Rama and Commissioner Kos after a very successful intergovernmental conference with Albania during which the second cluster of accession negotiations devoted to the common market was opened.

The chapters we have opened today are vital for Albania’s economic integration to the EU internal market. They cover key economic areas. The required reforms will lead to increased economic compatibility with the EU, increased trade opportunities and will also make Albania more attractive for investments.

I congratulate you Prime Minister Rama and your government on your efforts and clear dedication to the EU path. I have to repeat myself the fact that the overwhelming majority of the people of Albania support the path you are on is a positive inducement for us to speed along with the negotiation process.

I commend Albania on being a reliable partner in the field of security, a NATO ally and a staunch supporter of Ukraine. I congratulate the citizens of Albania in particular because today’s conference marks a very important step towards Albania’s integration into the European Union. The EU is a good, safe and prosperous future as we in Poland have experienced since 2004. And those who have left the EU are already regretting it.

Of course, it will require a huge effort and general social involvement but I assure you that it is worth making the effort. I hope that in the coming months we will be able to host more IGCs with other candidate countries. We have ambitious agenda for the rest of our presidency including with Ukraine, Moldova, Montenegro and others. I am sure that in such a strategically important issue as the future shape of the European Union we will find a common denominator.

Again, I congratulate Prime Minister Rama and again I will publicly say I appeal to the authorities of Hungary to stop vetoing both the European peace facility and the opening of the first chapter with Ukraine.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Minister Sikorsky, let me join you in expressing the condolences to our Ukrainian friends and I sign every word you very eloquently said about what happened not too far from here on the European soil as an adamant war crime. Exactly six months ago I was standing here in this very room after we opened negotiations on cluster one and then we came back again and we opened negotiations on cluster.

Today we are here again to move forward with cluster two the internal markets and I cannot but express a very special word of gratitude to the Polish presidency for its steadfast leadership and unwavering commitment to advancing this process.

We are absolutely equally grateful to all the EU member states for their support in making this happen so smoothly that it looks really fascinating to us from where we come from in terms of long battles and long time.

Our sincere thanks go as always to the European Commission and of course to our Commissioner Marta Kos who as I previously said once broke records cutting through the waters and became a champion of her nation and now has become our nation’s chronometer keeping time keeping pace and ensuring that every stroke moves us forward with discipline and purpose  and let me reiterate that together with the Commission and under Marta’s very disciplined guidance we have agreed on a very ambitious agenda we are looking forward to make sure together that within 2027 all the clusters are not only open but also closed it’s really super ambitious but we are here today to reaffirm our strong will our firmness and our full passion to achieve this goal.

I’m sure that both my dear friends on my left and many of you here have heard this before but this is worth repeating for Albania EU membership is far more than a political or an economic ambition it is an existential choice of life from a place we were never allowed to choose for centuries and generations to a future we have always longed to join and we know very well and learned in the hardest of ways that our individual freedom our equality in front of the law and the way of life we want for our children and for our future generations cannot be guaranteed anywhere else but within the European Union.

Thank you very much dear Radek, I know you have a lot in your plate and you have been anyhow very dedicated to this part of the whole plate of your presidency and you have delivered something that we’ll never forget and thank you Marta for trusting us for believing in us.

Commissioner Marta Kos: Thank you, Dear Prime Minister.

Albania is really a success story of our enlargement process, and today we have taken another step towards Albania’s EU membership but enlargement for me is more than just adding one country to the EU it’s about unification of Europe.

Radek and myself are so-called generation 2004 so we can tell out of first-hand what kind of benefits our countries yours is much bigger than mine but still have benefited from the EU membership and this is really nice to see because from the first hand we can explain how it was when we applied and how it is more than 20 years later so I thank you dear Minister Sikorsky for your really great support that we could have the first IGC during your presidency.

Thank you also to your team enabling this and today is also good news for all the people of Albania as future EU citizens and it’s the result of the determination of the authorities in Albania to deliver on reforms over many years and it is also the achievement of many civil servants working every day on the enlargement process it is a hard work yes I can be a hard trainer or chronometer but you know in order to be able to reaching results you have to be a motivator too.                                                                                                                                                                              So, I hope that I fulfill this task too.

I hope this is the first of several celebrations this year my call to action is we should celebrate every small step nowadays more important than ever and we would like to open all negotiating clusters and also start closing a chapter so the plan is that we open all the clusters this year and then with the next year we start closing we should also look at today’s opening negotiations on cluster to internal market from a very important today’s international perspective while tariffs and protectionism are making a comeback in many parts of the world I will work in this cluster is about breaking down the barriers to trade it is about improving competitiveness it is about securing high product standards it’s about more economic opportunities for both sides for the companies in Albania for the companies in the EU.

It is about more prosperity for everyone of course we are already now unlocking many of the benefits of the single market for Albania by gradual integration the country into our market through the Western Balkans growth plan this is already making business easier and strengthen Europe, wide value chains and to create new opportunities.

For example, Albania has already joined the single euro payment area we have the vice president of the Central Bank of Albania so good to have you here and we are looking forward to go full speed in autumn time and this will soon mean for instance that a young entrepreneur in Tirana can receive payments from customers across Europe as a business in Brussels or Vienna but full membership will eventually then unlock all those benefits.

This is our goal and still in mandate of this Commission.

2030 is okay dear Mr. Prime Minister? To achieve that of course the political commitments need to continue especially in critical areas such as justice reform judicial independence, fight against corruption, property rights, minority issues, and of course freedom of expression meeting the interim benchmarks depends on this.

You have already said that there is really a huge percentage of the population in Albania pro-European more than 90% and this is a wide national consensus. I think it is the highest in Europe and the highest of all the candidate countries and this should be used to engage all sectors of the society to local communities to speaking out of my own experiences if all the people of Albania will feel what the membership means and will bring this is then how they will be really a part of the EU.

So, we are working at a very ambitious pace and if Albania delivers on implementing the necessary reforms, I will be always your best advocate in Brussels and in all the member states. So, my message to the citizens of Albania is clear. Albania’s future is for sure in the EU and there is no doubt about it.

Today we are closer to achieving this goal than ever and the last remark your success has a wider impact. You can show to the whole Western Balkans region that with hard work and determination it can be done step by step.

* * *

Good evening. Today is a good day for Albania and for your government Prime Minister Rama but I want to know if you have a date for the opening the next cluster during the Polish presidency.

Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski:

Thank you. This requires unanimity as you know and on Ukraine for example we don’t have unanimity. On Albania it’s going better so you know the trouble with dates is that you either have standards or dates you can’t have both at the same time. We will do our best to speed it up because the people of Illyria belong in the Empire and this time voluntarily.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: And I want to add that we have full confidence that the Polish presidency will continue to push considering the fact that as Marta already reminded our dream is to be part of this union on 2030 and that’s why the plan is to conclude the whole negotiations on 2027 which is a very tight time and that’s why we need every day to be a restless day of work and that’s why we need to have more work on our table.

So, I’m here with all the team Albanian members that are connected to the cluster too and I can imagine that they feel under stress because now they have much more to do but at the same time, I want to thank them and everyone else on the team because they are working like crazy and they are delivering so far.

So, we have learned in the hard way with you never ask a date but always be ready for the date because we are here to date EU.

 – Has the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo been, or could it become, an obstacle to Albania’s accession to the European Union?

Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski:
Well, they’re not members, so they can’t veto. Inshallah not.

– In the meeting held with President Costa, was there any project or initiative to ensure accelerated steps, or will we have to wait for the May summit to learn something more?

Prime Minister Edi Rama:
I get the impression this is ChatGPT — it’s impressive — but I understand the question. It’s very simple. With the President of the European Council, we had a broader discussion about the progress we are making on this path, about the upcoming summit of the European Political Community on May 16 in Tirana, where we will host the largest meeting in our history. We are very much looking forward to being, as always, excellent hosts.

We also had a conversation about the situation in the region and went through the countries one by one, and, as always, it was an excellent discussion because the president is very wise and a person who pays close attention to the Western Balkans. I’m happy he will be visiting the Western Balkan countries ahead of the summit.

It was all very good, but I must emphasize one thing again: the pace of opening and working through the negotiation clusters belongs to the Commission. We must make sure that the lady in this room is always happy with us. Otherwise, no president, no king, no emperor can save us from getting slapped in the face.

I began by joining the Minister earlier, and I want to close by joining him once again in what he said — that yes, we are eagerly waiting to become part of this empire, because we’ve always belonged to empires. And this is the first empire we actually want to be part of. We are very loyal to empires. Our sense of loyalty can’t be fulfilled without being part of an empire. So… inshallah.