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NORTH MACEDONIA CROATIA MONTENEGRO SERBIA ALBANIA
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA KOSOVO Candidate status Negotiation process
Vucic, Zaev and Rama held a video meeting on “mini-Schengen"
By EWB - 30.10.2020
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Edi Rama, Aleksandar Vucic and Zoran Zaev; Photo: Tanjug / Tanja Vatic
WESTERN BALKANS - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and the
Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev held a video meeting today on "mini-Schengen",
renewing the initiative for improving regional cooperation which was launched last year, as reported
by Vucic's cabinet.
It was stated that the initiative is fully in line with the Berlin Process, and that it represents a good
basis for the upcoming summit of leaders of the Western Balkans, which will be held in Sofia, FoNet
reports.
The activities of the initiative for the improvement of regional cooperation were postpone’ the
COVID-19 pandemic, as well as due to the elections held in North Macedonia and Serf
statement reminds.
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EFB European Fund for the Balkans European Fund for che Balkans www.balkanfund.org II
The three leaders agreed that the crisis has further highlighted the need to intensify co-operation and
regional economic integration.
The leaders of Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia emphasized that it was extremely important for the Western Balkans to further engage in improving regional co-operation, and therefore called on
Pristina to join the initiative. The invitation followed the establishment of the framework defined in
Washington in September between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister
Avdullah Hoti.
President Vucic and Prime Ministers Rama and Zaev also agreed to form a permanent working group that will include official representatives of the governments of each of the participating countries, in order to speed up the process of signing and implementing agreed activities within the initiative for
improving regional cooperation.
The participants agreed that this initiative can also be used to identify joint infrastructure projects
aimed at the development of the region, in accordance with the EU Economic and Investment Plan for the countries of the Western Balkans.
The three leaders expressed hope that the governments of Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina will soon be able to join this initiative, which would achieve better economic cooperation between all countries in the region.
EWB
European Western Balkans is a web portal that focuses on the WB countries and reports on development of the EU's enlargement policy. The portal is launched in 2014 by the Centre for Contemporary Politics.
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