Representatives from the European Commission (Commission) and Albania held discussions on 3 December 2024 on the level of implementation of the SAA and of the approximation of the country legislation to the EU acquis in the field of agriculture and fisheries, including food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary issues.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Anila Denaj gave opening remarks on the side of Albania, followed by those of Giulio Venneri, Deputy Head of the Albania and North Macedonia Unit in the Commission, who was connected remotely from Brussels. The meeting was then co-chaired for Albania by Mr. Arjan Jaupllari, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and Negotiator for agriculture and food safety (Chapters 11 and 12) in the morning and by Ms. Eranda Selmanaj, Director of Programming and Monitoring of IPARD, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the afternoon. Mr. Adrien Bourgeois, Policy Officer in the Albania and North Macedonia Unit in the Commission, co-chaired the meeting on the EU side for the whole day in Tirana.

The two sides welcomed the second intergovernmental conference (IGC) opening the first cluster of accession negotiations on Fundamentals with Albania which took place on 15 October 2024. The IGC was a well-deserved recognition of the progress Albania made over the past years in advancing EU reforms.

The two sides discussed the level of implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) and of the approximation of the country legislation to the EU acquis in the areas covered by this Subcommittee. At the meeting, the parties discussed developments in these areas and exchanged detailed statistics on trade in basic agricultural and fishery products.

This subcommittee covers a large part of Cluster 5: agriculture and rural development (Chapter 11); food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy (Chapter 12); fisheries and aquaculture (Chapter 13); [chapters 22 Regional Development and 33 Financial and budgetary provisions are covered in another subcommittee]. 

The Commission noted that Albania has some level of preparation in most areas linked to resources, agriculture and rural development, food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy and fisheries.

Albania has made limited progress in agriculture and rural development. It is important that Albania strenghten its efforts in building its administrative capaicities and in aligning its legslation with the EU acquis in this sector. On fisheries, some progress was made, notably concerning the vessel monitoring system (VMS). The Commission expressed satisfaction for Albania’s continuous and active implementation of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) recommendations to monitor its fishing activities.

No progress was unfortunaly observed during the reporting period on food safety, veterenary and phytosanitory policy. The Commission invites Albania to focus on the alignement of its national legislation with the EU acquis, but also on enforcement. The implementation of the adopted national food safety policy is instrumental for stepping up progress.

In these areas, the Commission invited Albania to follow the recommendations included in the annual country report for 2024 and outline a clear roadmap of their implementation. The Commission and Albania will continue working closely together in the coming years in order for Albania to meet its commitment to close the accession negotiations by 2027 as stated in the 2024 Communication on EU Enlargement Policy, including the parts on agriculture, fisheries and food safety.