European Commission - Directorate General for Energy
European Commission - Directorate General for Energy
04/13/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/13/2026 08:29
Fourth EU-Albania Horizon Europe Joint Research and Innovation Committee meeting
On 09 April 2026, the fourth EU-Albania Horizon Europe Joint Research and Innovation Committee meeting was hosted by the European Commission in Brussels.
The meeting was co-chaired by Ms. Mina Stareva, Deputy Head of Unit for 'International cooperation - Europe and Americas', DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission, and by Armela Baka, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Education, Albania.
Policy developments
Both sides informed about recent policy developments, including broad legislation efforts on the Albanian side and concrete activities under their Smart Specialisation Strategy in the fields of health research, raw materials, nanotechnology, cultural tourism and youth engagement.
As an EU accession country, Albania is particularly interested in aligning national policies with European Research Area (ERA) priorities. Albania is committed to play a more active role in ERA structural policies and ERA actions like the ones on research careers, research infrastructures or science for policy.
Participation in Horizon Europe
Albania's participation in Horizon Europe has already exceeded - both in terms of grants and funding received - their performance under Horizon 2020. They are particularly successful under the widening programme part of Horizon Europe, but additional efforts might be needed to further increase their participation, especially in instruments supporting innovation. Albania will examine, which national programmes they could open for the participation of EU entities.
The mission city Elbasan will be officially awarded the mission label on 14-15 April at a high-level event in Elbasan that will open the door for the implementation of the actions of the Climate City Contract.
Conclusion and next steps
The meeting offered a good occasion to acknowledge Albania's good progress on its EU accession path with special regard to Chapter 25 that covers Science and Research and to discuss various ways how to strengthen Albania's participation in Horizon Europe.
The next Horizon Europe Joint Committee Meeting is foreseen to take place in Tirana in 2027.
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