Albania attended the explanatory screening meeting on the EU legislation for Chapter 28 “Consumer and health protection”. This is the twentieth of a series of meetings held with the European Commission in the past six months on various chapters for accession negotiations.

This process began following the decision of the EU Council of Ministers in June 2018, which paved the way for the opening of the negotiations with Albania and authorized the EU Commission to start preparatory work for screening of the Albanian legislation vis a vis the EU acquis, ahead of the formal negotiations for EU membership.

During this meeting, the Albanian delegation acquainted itself with the legal acts and main European Union policies concerning access to Product Safety and Rapid Alert System (RAPEX), consumer and health protection, public health, cosmetics products and medical devices, communicable diseases, European Centre for disease prevention and control, social and environmental determinations of health. In the next step Albania will be requested to present the degree of alignment and implementation of its legislation with the acquis as well as its future plans and strategies with regard thereto.

The Albanian delegation in this meeting is headed by the Deputy Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Mr. Sokol Dedja and representatives of the Ministry of Finance and Economy, Ministry of Health and Social Protection, Institute of Public Health, State Health Inspectorate, Consumer Protection Commission, State Market Surveillance Inspectorate, Bank of Albania and of other institutions.