Albania advances EU integration by opening all clusters; North Macedonia stalls due to political and bilateral barriers.
🔗 Read the article on balkanview.com
[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]
Albania and North Macedonia exhibit different paths toward European Union integration; Albania is an active negotiating country having opened all clusters, while North Macedonia remains stalled due to political issues, bilateral barriers, and internal disagreements. While both countries initially progressed together, their paths diverged significantly after June 2022. North Macedonia’s progress has been hindered by external demands, notably from Bulgaria regarding constitutional amendments stemming from Protocol 2, which transformed a bilateral issue into a European condition preventing the opening of its first cluster. Internal politics and historical neighbor relations are also cited as reasons for North Macedonia’s stagnation. In contrast, Albania rapidly advanced after October 2024, opening all six clusters within a year by meeting preconditions like rule of law reforms. Despite this progress, Albania faces internal challenges such as reform fatigue and the need for significant investment to meet EU standards in areas like environmental protection. Environmentally, Albania struggles with high air pollution rates linked to transport and issues with wastewater and waste management, with numerous annual violations recorded across industrial areas.
