Olha Stefanishyna Meets with Albania’s State Minister and Chief EU Negotiator

On July 14, 2025, in Tirana, Albania, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration – Minister of Justice of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna met with State Minister and Chief Negotiator of the Republic of Albania Majlinda Dhuka and State Minister for Public Administration and Anti-Corruption Adea Pirdeni.

The meeting focused on strengthening bilateral cooperation in the field of European integration, in particular on exchanging experience and expertise, the next steps in the EU accession process for both countries, and communication with EU Member States.

Olha Stefanishyna expressed gratitude to Albania for its consistent support of Ukraine’s European aspirations and its resistance to russia’s full-scale aggression. She also congratulated her partners on their progress in negotiations with the EU – including the opening of several clusters in 2024–2025 – and underlined that EU accession must be merit-based.

“We are not only defending the interests of our own states – we are serving the interests of the EU. The window of opportunity for enlargement was opened by the dramatic circumstances of war. But it is here, and we must seize this chance without allowing bureaucracy or political manipulation to undermine the process,” the Deputy Prime Minister stated.

She informed that Ukraine is in the final stages of the official screening of its legislation and is already prepared to begin negotiations with the EU on three negotiating clusters. She stressed that Ukraine is fully committed to fulfilling its further obligations and expressed hope for strengthened cooperation with Albania on the road to the EU.

“EU membership is our common goal and a vital compass for further transformations. We are grateful to our Albanian partners who stand shoulder to shoulder with us, and we are ready to continue supporting and learning from each other. I am convinced that the implementation of the Memorandum on Cooperation in the Field of European Integration, signed in January 2025, will help accelerate our countries’ accession to the EU, improve the quality of the negotiation process, and deepen Ukrainian-Albanian cooperation in key areas,” she said.

The Albanian side confirmed its commitment to strengthening practical cooperation under the Memorandum, particularly in the context of institutional coordination, and offered support to Ukraine in areas such as information management tools for EU integration, translation and alignment of legislation with the EU acquis, and preparation of compliance tables.

The participants also discussed challenges facing all candidate countries, particularly regarding communicating reform progress to EU Member States and maintaining support for the enlargement process.

These and other issues will be further addressed in bilateral technical consultations aimed at ensuring effective coordination of the EU accession negotiation process. A separate focus of the Ukrainian delegation’s visit to Albania will be studying the country’s experience in implementing judicial reform, anti-corruption policies, and restoring public trust in judges, prosecutors, and civil servants. To this end, a series of working-level meetings will be held with the participation of Oleksandr Ilkov, Director General of the Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, representatives of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, and Ukrainian experts.