EU and Albania provisionally close chapter on enterprise and industrial policy

The EU and Albania have provisionally closed accession negotiations on rules regarding enterprise and industrial policy. The announcement came at a second accession conference with Albania under the Irish presidency, following the closure of the first three negotiating chapters last July.

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Thomas Byrne, Ireland's Minister of State for European affairs and defence, said the chapter closure reflects commitment to advance Albania's EU integration path. He said Albania should stay the course on core reforms to move forward in the process in the coming months.

The text identifies the closed chapter as number 20. It says this follows the provisional closure of three other chapters in July 2026: science and research, education and culture, and external relations.

Albania has opened all 33 screened negotiating chapters in its EU accession talks and has now provisionally closed 4. The source also states that agreements reached on specific chapters are not final until an overall agreement is reached for all chapters, and that the Fundamentals cluster is opened first and closed last.

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