On December 08 and 09, 2022, the first Study Visit on Chapter 22 in Brussels took place.

** Text taken from the Agency for Support of Local Governments (ASLG) published on their Facebook page on 13 December 2022.

With the technical assistance of RDPA, and with the participation of high-level representatives of the coordinating and contributing institutions of the EU negotiation process on Chapter 22, a 2 days study visit in Brussels was carried out, at the request of the Albanian Authorities, in DG Near and DG Regio.

The visit focused on the Commission’s expectations and requests from the Albanian authorities for Chapter 22 in the upcoming years. The representatives got to know the current status of the territorial cohesion policy and urban issues as part of the negotiation process; advices and recommendations on how to cooperate with other member and candidate countries, to share experience as an exercise before the formal screening process.

Among other things, the visit helped establish relationships to facilitate and initiate faster communication at policy and technical levels in the negotiation process in DG Near and DG Regio, as well as to better understand the negotiation process, the current methodology and the flow of information in this process.