Balkan Leaders Pledge to Boost Economic Cooperation

Leaders at an online summit on Monday, part of the Berlin Process, an initiative to boost regional cooperation among Western Balkan countries and their European integration, pledged to boost economic ties while affirming the need for EU integration of all the countries in the region.

"Participants emphasised that EU enlargement for the countries of the Western Balkans constitutes a strategic investment in peace, democracy, prosperity, security and stability in Europe, reconfirming the longstanding view that the future of the entire region lies within the EU," said the conclusions of the summit, which were issued on Monday evening.

The summit was chaired by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and attended by the leaders of Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania, as well as EU officials, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and the premiers of Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria and Poland.

Merkel, who is chairing the Berlin Process Summit for the last time, in her capacity as German chancellor, underlined that despite the major obstacles in the way of full integration of the region into EU, the process has also produced some tangible results over the past seven years since it began.

She mentioned the regional roaming agreement, which entered into force this July 1, scrapping roaming charges between the Western Balkans countries, the ongoing initiative for establishing a common regional market by 2024, the green energy agenda which envisages reducing the use of coal with the help of EU funds as well as the establishment of the Regional Youth Cooperation Office.

Stressing that the process of EU accession and the Berlin Process is designed to...