Albania officially entered the concluding phase of its EU accession negotiations on 26 May, following an Intergovernmental Conference that formally marked the beginning of the final stretch. It is only the second candidate country to reach this stage — the first was Montenegro.
The milestone followed the EU Working Group on Enlargement's approval of Albania's Interim Benchmark Assessment Report on 21 May. Commissioner Kos confirmed Albania had officially transitioned into the concluding phase.
On timing, Tirana and Brussels are reading from slightly different scripts. Prime Minister Edi Rama has set 2027 or 2028 as his target. Commissioner Kos has pointed to 2029 as more realistic. The divergence reflects both the political pressure on the Albanian government — membership before the decade ends is a genuine priority — and the substantive complexity of closing the remaining chapters, particularly those touching rule of law.
Montenegro holds the longest track record in the field. All 33 screened negotiating chapters have been opened; 13 are provisionally closed. Podgorica's stated goal is to close the remaining chapters by end-2026 and achieve full EU membership by 2028. A key political milestone was secured in June 2024, when Montenegro received a positive interim benchmark assessment on Chapters 23 and 24 — covering judiciary reform and justice and security — the most politically sensitive chapters in any accession process.
If Montenegro reaches the 2028 target, it would be the first new EU member since Croatia joined in 2013. After more than a decade in which enlargement was treated as a theoretical aspiration, that possibility has returned to the table.
The European Commission has shifted from framing enlargement as a long-term ambition to treating it as a strategic necessity — particularly against the backdrop of Russian aggression in Ukraine and the competition for geopolitical influence in the Western Balkans. The pace of Albania's progress, and the seriousness of Montenegro's timeline, will test whether that political shift translates into genuine institutional momentum.
For the first time in over a decade, EU membership for Western Balkans countries is a near-term possibility rather than a distant promise. The familiar risks remain: reform fatigue, political backsliding on rule of law, and the tendency of EU member states to lose interest in enlargement once the geopolitical urgency fades. Both Tirana and Podgorica are in the concluding stretch. Whether they cross the line depends as much on what happens in the negotiating rooms as on the political mood in Brussels.
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