In Lake Garda, not far from Verona, in Italy, the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic and the Prime Ministers of Albania and North Macedonia, Edi Rama and Dimitar Kovacevski, met as part of the “Open Balkans” initiative. This is the first time that the meeting of the leaders of the “Open Balkan” initiative is held outside the borders of the Western Balkans.

After the meeting, the three leaders held a joint press conference, where the main topic was the results achieved so far within the initiative, but also future plans, which are thought to make life easier for citizens and businessmen of the region.

During a communication with the media, Prime Minister Rama said that the commercial exchange between Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia has increased by 24.8 percent during 2022, and that this, according to him, is a great increase as a result of the “Balkan i Open”.

During the joint press conference with the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, and the prime minister of North Macedonia, Dimitrov Kovacevski, Rama said that the Open Balkans project is extremely important for these three countries.

“The three of us are here because we are part of one of the biggest events in Europe, wine production in Verona, and it’s the first time that our producers can show what they can do at this Champions League fair. We will repeat this in the following months,” said Rama.

Rama announced that the next meeting will be at the end of May in Albania, while there will also be a wine fair in Albania. He said that what has been announced a long time ago will also begin to be organized, which is related to the first camp for children who go to primary and secondary schools, with the best sports teams.

“The children will learn from each other and will benefit from it,” said Prime Minister Rama.

He emphasized that it is important for the three countries to work in a strategic perspective to strengthen ties with the EU, strengthen cooperation, and at the same time to ensure that there is a dialogue.

“We will not ask for gifts or acceleration by artificial means, as the integration process is important to us. We are not somewhere, but we are in the middle of Europe and we will discuss this extensively in May as well”, said Rama.

Rama said that the disagreements between Serbia and Albania, especially when it comes to Kosovo, are sometimes really big, underlining that on the other hand this is a reason to talk more and not less. He added that the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Kurti, is now much more open than before. “Sometimes there are really big disagreements between us, especially when it comes to Kosovo. Dialogue is the most important thing,” he said.

Rama said that he met Kurt a few days ago and that he noticed that he is much more open than before. He stated that in this meeting the topic was also the Union of Serbian Municipalities and the guarantee of the rights of the Serbian Orthodox Church, underlining that it should be 100 percent guaranteed for the Serbs. “The association of municipalities is important as a bridge for the future. It is no longer a taboo topic. And that it has our full support to move forward”, said Rama.

Vucic: Harmonization of identification documents will be able to speed up border crossings

While Serbian President Vucic underlined in his speech that he has discussed with the Prime Ministers of Albania and North Macedonia, how to remove all obstacles to enable free trade, as well as free movement of goods and people.

“We talked about many important issues to get everything ready before the start of the summer season,” Vucic said.

He added that he also talked with Kovacevski and Rama about the harmonization of identification documents, which will be able to speed up border crossings.

“We talked about getting new identification cards. The three of us agreed that we will be able to make progress on this issue in the coming months,” said Vucic.

Vucic informed that very soon Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania will open all border crossings for one day and let people and goods flow freely, to show that open borders can work.

Kovacevski: The Open Balkan initiative is an economic initiative, it is giving results

The Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovacevski, said that the wine fair in Verona is one of the biggest and most important fairs where the vision of the Open Balkans wine is shared, in the same ways on which the free trade of goods of the European Union is based.

He emphasized that the Scandinavian countries do not have borders and that the Balkans is the only region with borders, underlining that “there is no greater stupidity than this, because we used to be countries without borders”.

“The data presented by President Vucic that 70 percent of transport delays occur at the border, are given by the World Bank. We don’t need borders”, Kovacevski said.

He emphasized that the initiative of the Open Balkans is organic, authentic and based on good will for good relations between countries.

/a.p/