Albania is on the current agenda for future enlargement of the European Union (EU). It applied for EU membership on 28 April 2009, and has since June 2014 been an official candidate for accession. The Council of the European Union decided in March 2020 to open accession negotiations with Albania.[1]
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Accession of Albania to the European Union |
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/European_Union_Albania_Locator_%28with_internal_borders%29.svg/220px-European_Union_Albania_Locator_%28with_internal_borders%29.svg.png) |
Status | Negotiating Candidate |
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Application |
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European perspective | 2003 |
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Membership application | 28 April 2009 |
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Screened & negotiations commence | |
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(27+1) |
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Population | 446,828,803 | 449,845,596 0.63% |
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Area | 4,233,262 km2 1,634,472 mi2 | 4,264,004 km2 0.68% 1,645,572 mi2 0.68% |
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HDI | 0.896 | 0.891 0.22% |
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GDP (PPP) | $25.399 trillion | |
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GDP per capita (PPP) | $56,928 | |
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GDP | $17.818 trillion | |
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GDP per capita | $39,940 | |
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Gini | 30.0 | 31.31 0.4% |
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Official Languages | 24 | Albanian 1 |
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However, the country did not start accession negotiations because its candidacy was linked to that of North Macedonia, which was vetoed by Bulgaria.[2] On 24 June 2022, Bulgaria's parliament approved lifting the country's veto on opening EU accession talks with North Macedonia. On 16 July 2022, the Assembly of North Macedonia also approved the revised French proposal, allowing accession negotiations to begin.[3] The start of negotiations was officially launched on 19 July 2022.[4]
It is one of nine current EU candidate countries, together with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.