After Podgorica and Trieste, leader of Western Balkan countries met
again, this time in Durres, Albania, focusing on cooperation, commerce
and digital economy.
Albanian PM Edi Rama received his counterpart from Montenegro, Dushko Markovic; Kosovo PM Isa Mustafa; Macedonian PM Zoran Zaev; Serbian PM Ana Brnabic; the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denis Zvizdic; EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn and the Vice President of the World Bank for Europe and Central Asia, Cyril Muller.
The meeting was informal and all leaders took a picture without ties.
Western Balkan Prime Minister discussed about a maximal commitment for implementing the many-year-long plan for the Regional Economic Area, on which all leaders agreed six weeks ago at the Trieste Summit.
EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn posted the picture of this meeting on Twitter and said that local politics is the key for regional cooperation. The regional economic integration is not an alternative for accessing the EU, but a useful complimentary, according to Hahn, who adds that building a regional economic area will be key for raising employment and the economy.
Rama said there is an action plan with 115 points about exchange of goods, services, capital and qualified workers, which will make the entire region even more attractive. “We are very encouraged by the fact that there is full accordance on a political level”, Rama said, adding that the efforts of Albania to reduce the number of asylum seekers is being successful. He stated that as Prime Minister, he refuses targeting of some criminal Albanians as a reason to point their finger to all of Albania.
“It is clear there are no Albanian asylum seekers, no Albanians looking for a better life, when they have the freedom to move. I refuse to accept the targeting of Albanians, the asylum seeking ones or those who commit crimes, as a reason to point their finger to Albania. Criminals must respond in front of the law and they should not be pointed as Albanian or Balkan criminals. Our job is to accelerate the integration access and have more access on the job market. A great work has been done in the fight against cannabis. Today we have results of an international monitoring, showing that the promise was kept. After this season of planting , Albania will be removed from the map of problematic countries”, Rama said in his speech.
Johannes Hahn said they agreed about the points of this plan, which he considered a good sign for its implementation.
He valued the elections held in Albania, adding that now everyone is expecting the implementation of the Vetting law, since there are no more justifications against it. “Fair and transparent elections were a condition for progress. Now there are no more justifications. We can start with the implementation and we will see the first concrete results. There is no need to seek asylum in EU countries because you only damage yourselves and your country’, Hahn said.
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