Creating Balkan Bennelux

“Our initiative is to liberate the trade with Kosovo, which in a mid-term period will have only one inspection administration in the Durres port for all goods that enter in Albania for then going to Kosovo. This will save hours of working time, a large cost and will make the border invisible in this view”, Ahmetaj declared.

The Minister of Economy gave these declarations in a conference organized by a group of institutions that are articulating in public the idea of creating a unified economic area between Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo.

“The idea is to promote and coordinate the actions between four countries, especially in economy, trade relations, security and education. The final goal is to have a Bennelux in Balkan”, declared Adrian Shehu, president of “AGREE”.

The idea of having a unified economic area was supported by the business too, which considers it a necessity to attract the foreign capital that today is obstacled by the small market.

“The main questions of those who have capitals to invest in Albania are two: the size of our economy and our market. When you say that Albania has 3 million residents, Macedonia 2 million and Montenegro 1 million, then they say that they would better invest in Serbia or Greece. With this logic, we are not taken in consideration even by the small capital investors who come from abroad, and to stay in their agenda you cannot stay divided”, declared Mark Crowford, President of the American Chamber of Commerce.

Selami Xhepa, however, supports another solution: the impartial unification of customs with the European Union countries.

“Wouldn’t it be better to go towards this idea, or the idea of making all the Balkan countries members of the European Union customs area, by harmonizing this way our trade policy with that of the European Union. The integration agendas cannot go in different directions for as long that every Balkan country has the aspiration to become a European Union member”, Xhepa declared.

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