Djukanovic: We need EU assistance

BELGRADE - The European Union (EU) should support infrastructure development in the Western Balkans to ensure economic recovery in this part of the European continent, Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic has said.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the Trilateral Commission in Belgrade on Saturday, Dukanovic said that the EU should help the Western Balkans to become a "healthy economic organism whose integration in Europe will contribute to European competitiveness on a global scale."

Djukanovic said that the meeting of the Trilateral Comission's European branch was a very important gathering and voiced belief that the forum was an opportunity to speak about the problems faced by the Western Balkans and to once again draw the attention of the members of the elite international, political and general public to our vision of how to overcome the issues of insufficient stability and of lack of a more dynamic economic growth and democratic development in our countries.

Having gone through two recessions and facing the problem of deflation, the economies of the Western Balkans are now in a very bad situation, Djukanovic said.
"The EU must ensure the economy of the Western Balkans receives an electrical shock. It is not enough to just constantly repeat the 'door is open' platitude. The Western Balkans needs to be helped to really pass through that door," Prime Minister Djukanovic said.

According to Djukanovic, the EU assistance should primarily concern infrastructure development, to ensure better connectivity within the region and with EU countries.

Djukanovic said that he had discussed those issues with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, and expressed the hope that the good practice...