Bilateral Screening Meeting, EU - Albania, Chapter 17: Economic and Monetary Policy

Following the negotiation process for Albania's EU membership and according to the agenda set for Cluster 3, on 15 June 2023, a bilateral screening meeting on Chapter 17 "Economic and Monetary Policy" took place in Brussels.

This Chapter is dedicated to European Acquis related to the draft and coordination of macroeconomic policies across member countries of the European Union. The Bank of Albania leads the Inter-institutional European Integration Group for Chapter 17, chaired by the Second Deputy Governor of the BoA, Ms Natasha Ahmetaj. 

Members of the delegation of Albania were also experts from the Bank of Albania and Ministry of Finance. Pursuant to the pre-defined agenda, the Albanian delegation explained the Albanian legal and institutional framework, highlighting the alignment level of the national legislation and the existing gaps with the EU acquis for each sub- area under this chapter.  

Some of the main issues of this chapter that were presented by the Albanian delegation are related to: the procedures of economic policy coordination in the pre-accession phase; the current national budgeting framework; fiscal monitoring; the independence of the central bank; the legal provision related to the monetary financing of government and the prohibition of privileged access of public sector to the financial system; exchange rate policies and protection of currency from counterfeiting.

Next to the presentations by the members of the Albanian delegation the EU representatives addressed various questions related to the above stated topics. The Albanian experts, by respective fields, provided the relevant answers. At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr Marc Jorna, in capacity of Chair of the EU Delegation, thanked and commended all the representatives in the meeting, highlighting the rather good job done by the Albanian delegation’s experts in the presentations.

In addition, Mr Jorna informed the representatives that the European Commission will draft the Screening Report on this Chapter, which will serve as a guideline in the process of accession negations of Albania to the European Union.