The next meeting between the three countries that have signed for the ‘Open Balkan’ initiative, Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia, will take place in Belgrade on November 3rd and 4th.

Prime Minister Edi Rama from the climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, traveled to Belgrade. In the wake of the resignation of Zoran Zaev, the Deputy Prime Minister of North Macedonia Nikola Dimitrov will take his place.

The agenda for this meeting, organized by the Atlantic Council, includes a discussion panel on “Digital Transformation as a helping hand for regional integration”, in which there will be conclusions and then a press conference will be held.

A few days ago after the second round of local elections in North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, whose party suffered a shameful defeat, resigned. He took responsibility for this loss, but said that SDSM will continue to govern the country, implying that the commitment and promises made within the “Open Balkans” will remain.

As part of the ambitious project for the whole region, that the Balkans will finally leave behind centuries of division, ‘Open Balkan’, Prime Minister Rama, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, on July 29 last, signed a joint declaration, which is based on the 4 great freedoms of cooperation in the western world: freedom of movement of goods, capital, people and services.

The regional cooperation initiative was also supported by the United States, the EU and Germany, which issued a statement urgently requesting the signing of the Common Regional Market Agreement before the EU-Balkans Summit on October 6th. However, Kosovo, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina are not joining the initiative. 

/Klara Ruci/