An assessment mission by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) took place in Albania from September 15 to 17, 2026. The mission evaluated Albania’s progress in meeting Closing Benchmark 3 under Chapter 7, Intellectual Property, with a focus on administrative capacities and the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

The General Directorate of Industrial Property said Deputy Minister of Economy and Innovation and Chapter 7 Negotiator Martin Kajo attended the meetings. EUIPO experts Ninoslav Babić and Silvie Froech, representatives of the European Union Delegation in Tirana, and officials from Albanian institutions responsible for administering and enforcing intellectual property rights also took part.

According to the General Directorate of Industrial Property, the discussions focused on administrative capacities and human resources, technical systems and tools, as well as enforcement results and statistics for the 2023–2025 period. Participants also discussed interinstitutional cooperation and specific cases that demonstrate how Albania’s intellectual property protection and enforcement system operates in practice.

The Technical Secretariat for Chapter 7 at the General Directorate of Industrial Property coordinated the meetings. It worked with the contributing institutions to support the process of closing Chapter 7, Intellectual Property, as part of Albania’s European Union accession negotiations.

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