Pahor to host regional summit in September

Ljubljana – Slovenian President Borut Pahor will host the leaders of the Brdo-Brijuni initiative of regional cooperation for a summit at Brdo estate on 12 September which is to call on the EU to step up enlargement to the Western Balkans.

Announcing the summit, the president’s office said it will be an opportunity to assess the current situation in the region and call on EU member states and institutions to speed up the enlargement process.

Attendance has been confirmed by all the leaders concerned; Croatian President Zoran Milanović as a co-leader of the initiative, Albanian President Bajram Begaj, the presiding trio of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željko Komšić, Milorad Dodik and Šefik Džaferović, Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović, Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, North Macedonia’s President Stevo Pendarovski and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

The initiative was launched in 2010 by Pahor, who then served as Slovenia’s prime minister, and his then counterpart Jadranka Kosor. After signing the border arbitration agreement, the pair wanted to inspire Western Balkan leaders by example and encourage them to resolve bilateral issues and make faster progress to becoming EU members one day.

Since then Brdo-Brijuni has established itself as one of the most important political initiatives in South Eastern Europe and it has also inspired the Berlin Process, the president’s office said. Since 2013 the initiative’s leaders have been meeting every year, often joined by other senior guests.

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