The political leaders of Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia on Thursday called the European Union to look into ways to speed up the integration of the Western Balkans.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and North Macedonia’s Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Dimitrov said in a joint statement that the EU has confirmed its support for the European perspective of the Western Balkans at the October 6 summit in Slovenia and that the region reiterated its commitment to European values and democratic principles, democratic rule, basic rights and rule of law. They added that the EU’s questionable capacity to integrate new members and internal debate are obstructing the region’s progress towards the EU.
“The EU is developing new, far-reaching strategies while the region is desperately trying to implementing existing strategies. We remain committed to achieving EU standards even though are path to the EU has gone off track,” the statement said adding that they can’t allow the negative spiral to jeopardize the future and prsperity of the region.
“The EU is moving forward while the region remains stuck in EU dilemmas,” it said. The statement added that the region should be included in developing EU trade and tax policies and that possible exemptions from trade policies could be looked into. “We could look into participation in Schengen and gradual integration into the single EU market,” it said. It added that the three leaders confirmed their determination to deepen economic cooperation within the Open Balkan initiative. “We approved a detailed plan to implement measures to ease trade and called the Western Balkan Regional Chamber of Commerce to monitor its implementation and we also decided to form an inter-ministerial council to work with the chambers of commerce.
“The Western Balkans are ready to move forward quickly. We should move forward and the EU should move towards the Western Balkans. Staying in neutral is not an option,” the statement said and called all the countries of the region to join the Open Balkan initiative.
