THE ALBANIAN PUBLIC'S TRUST IN SECURITY: STUMBLING BLOCKS TO EU NEGOTIATIONS Despite the institutional reforms undertaken and a vast legal and strategic framework in place, Albania will face key challenges in negotiating Chapter 23& 24. More specifically the commitment to demonstrate, through concrete actions, results in the area of anti-corruption and the fight against organized crime via a reliable track recording mechanism. This creates a" Perpetuum mobile" for Albania and its government, a continuous cycle of building local ownership of reforms, winning public trust, and maintaining strong and efficient law enforcement which will guarantee long term sustainability in these important policy areas for the EU. 2. Albania: The long road towards negotiations for EU membership Albania is currently on the path to open membership negotiations with the EU for future membership to the European Union(EU) which means negotiating 35 EU acquis chapters. Albania's institutional relationship with the EU began with the signing of the Trade& Cooperation Agreement on 12 May 1991. This was followed by the Stabilization and Association Agreement(SAA) on 1 April 2009 which remains in force today and is considered the most important agreement between the EU and Albania. Albania applied for EU membership on 28 April 2009 and since 29 June 2014, has been an official candidate for accession. Albania is currently receiving€1.2bn. of developmental aid until 2020 from the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, (IPA 2014-2020) a funding mechanism for EU candidate countries. During the 2003 Thessaloniki European Council summit, Albania- along with six other Western Balkan countries, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia& Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Kosovo- was identified as a potential candidate for EU membership. Until now, out of these seven Western Balkan countries, only Croatia has become a full EU member. Croatia gained membership on 1 July 2013, after opening negotiations with the EU in June 2006. Two other Western Balkan countries have started membership negotiations with the EU. The accession negotiations began with Montenegro in June 2012. It has opened 32 chapters and has provisionally closed three of them, accession of the country to the EU is considered possible by 2025. In its 2016 assessment of the accession progress, the European Commission identified Montenegro as having the highest level of preparation for membership among the negotiating states. On 21 January 2014 Serbia opened negotiations with the EU by opening 17 out of 35 chapters and the process is ongoing. Although Albania received its candidacy status in 2014 there is not yet a formal date set to open negotiations. On 01 April 2018, the Commission issued an unconditional recommendation to open accession negotiations with Albania. In its 01 June 2018 Conclusions, the EU Council set out the path towards opening accession negotiations in 41