At a summit of the Open Balkan economic cooperation initiative, Montenegrin Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said his cabinet would consider joining Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania in the project.

Montenegro Mulls Joining ‘Open Balkan’ Initiative, Kosovo Remains Opposed

Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania and Montengro at the Open Balkan summit in Ohrid, North Macedonia. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

Montenegrin Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said at the Open Balkan summit in the town of Ohrid on Wednesday that he sees the initiative favourably, but said will first have to weigh up all its aspects with his cabinet before making any decision about whether to join.

“I see the Open Balkan initiative as help for jointly creating a future of economic progress, business, greater mobility of citizens, and greater cooperation in all fields. Every initiative that can lead to progress and reconciliation will have the support of the Montenegrin government,” Abazovic said.

The initiative, spearheaded by Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania, has so far rebuffed by Kosovo, Bosnia and Montenegro.

Like Abazovic, the head of Bosnia’s Council of Ministers, Zoran Tegeltija, attended the summit as an observer, but offered less optimism about the possibility of his country joining the initiative.

Tegeltija said that despite the fact that the Bosnian business community and public generally support the initiative, his country still lacks a consensus about it for “political reasons”.

This is the first time that a summit of the initiative has attracted representatives from five out of six Western Balkan countries, which is seen as considerable progress.

The countries that have not joined the initiative so far, Kosovo, Bosnia and Montenegro, have expressed fears that it might turn into an unnecessary because the issues of establishing closer regional ties and overcoming bureaucratic barriers for businesses and societies are already on the EU integration agenda.

The US Deputy Assistant Secretary overseeing Western Balkans policy, Gabriel Escobar, said in a video address to the summit that the US supports the initiative, and that the countries involved should strive to keep it focused on economy and not make it a political movement.

“That’s how you will get more support,” he said, adding that in order to succeed, the initiative will have to incorporate all six Western Balkan countries and would have to align its agenda with all other regional initiatives like the EU’s Berlin Process.

The EU’s Enlargealso addressed the summit and expressed Brussels’ support.

“Open Balkan can be an opportunity for speeding up the EU integration path. If we do the job well, we will speed up the economic integration of the region,” he said.

This in turn should be a key factor for speeding up the real EU integration of the region, he added.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the region needs cooperation as never before due to the food shortages caused by the war in Ukraine.

Reiterating that the initiative should not be seen as an alternative to the EU, Vucic stressed that his country is interested in solving practical problems.

“We have no requests for anyone, except to cooperate… Everyone is welcome. I want us to form working groups immediately or at the next meeting, to make sure we overcome the difficulties with the supply of food and energy, and to help each other to survive the winter,” Vucic said.

Albania’s Prime Minister M Edi Rama also pointed to the need for practical solutions.

“We have the winter on the horizon, which will bring a shortage of electricity on the market. We do not have the luxury of turning our backs on each other and waging conflicts. We will also be jointly faced with the problem of [procuring] grain,” Rama said.

Kosovo has repeated that it does not intend to join the initiative.

Before summit, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti rejected an invitation from the summit’s host, North Macedonia’s premier Dimitar Kovacevski, to attend the event.

In his reply to Kovacevski, Kurti said that his country is already engaged in the Berlin Process, which strives to establish similar connections between Western Balkan countries, and so he does not see any reason to join the Open Balkan initiative.

Source link: balkaninsight.com