BRUSSELS – The European Commission’s annual reports, published yesterday, show that, compared to 2022, Albania increased its level of preparation on six negotiating chapters, while Kosovo increased it on five. North Macedonia and Serbia increased their readiness level in one chapter each, while in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina there were no changes.
Each European Commission report uses the following scale to describe the state of progress of each of the 33 negotiating chapters: early stage, some level of preparation, moderately prepared, good level of preparation and well advanced.
This scale is often quantified informally and numbers 1 to 5 are assigned to each level. European Western Balkans calculated the average level of preparedness on this scale for each country in the region, based on reports released yesterday.
Montenegro remains the leader in the region, with an average score of 3.12, on a scale of 1 to 5. However, there was no change in the level of preparedness compared to last year, the average score therefore remains the same.
Serbia increased its level of preparation for Chapter 17: Economic and Monetary Policy, from “moderately prepared”, equivalent to level 3, to “between moderate and good level of preparation”, equivalent to 3.5. This increased his overall rating from 3.03 to 3.05.
Similarly, in North Macedonia, the same Chapter received the same improvement in terms of readiness level, increasing the country’s average score from 3.02 to 3.03.
Albania achieved a change in its preparedness level in six chapters. These are chapter 7: Intellectual property law, chapter 9: Financial services, chapter 13: Fisheries and aquaculture, chapter 15: Energy, chapter 17: Economic and monetary policy and chapter 19: Social policy and employment.
These changes increased Albania’s overall score from 2.64 to 2.74 on a scale of 1 to 5.
Kosovo is the country that saw the biggest increase in its score – from 1.85 to 1.98. His score improved in five negotiation chapters.
These chapters, for Kosovo, are Chapter 1: Free movement of goods, Chapter 4: Free movement of capital, Chapter 7: Intellectual property law, Chapter 12: Food security, veterinary and phytosanitary policy and Chapter 26: Education and culture.
Finally, Bosnia and Herzegovina saw no change in its level of preparedness. Its average rating is 1.67, same as last year.