Pristina, Belgrade differ on Open Balkans Initiative

Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla Schwartz told a new conference with her North Macedonia counterpart Bujar Osmani that the initiative could be dangerous for Kosovo and might jeopardize its goal of becoming a European Union member state. “The Republic of Kosovo considers the former Mini Schengen, now Open Balkans initiative dangerous. An atmosphere is being created for an alternative to our joint path to the EU,” she said.
The Kosovo government said earlier that it does not support the initiative launched by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the Prime Ministers of North Macedonia and Albania, Zoran Zaev and Edi Rama in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad in October 2019. The initiative was renamed Open Balkans at a summit of the three leaders in Skoplje earlier this week.

According to Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, the initiative will bring the region a different future. She said that it would allow people in the region to come together in a completely different way, adding that it will link the economies of the Western Balkans providing much more dynamic economic growth and development.

“There has been criticism saying that the initiative will lead to the creating of a Greater Albania. In Albania and in parts of North Macedonia critics say that the initiative will lead to the creating of a Greater Serbia. The initiative will actually bring a different future to the region,” Brnabic said.

She said that it would allow young people to travel more freely and get jobs more easily, and make it easier to bring in big foreign investors to a single labor market. “This will bring huge benefits for people and to the economies as well as huge political benefits because we will show that we can take care of ourselves,” Brnabic said.