Western Balkan prime ministers will meet again, this time in Durres, Albania

Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama will host on 26 August 2017, in Durrës, an informal meeting of the Western Balkans Prime Ministers, on the subject of deepening regional integration with focus on economy and trade. Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabic, Prime Minister of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Hercegovina, Denis Zvizdic, Prime Minister of FYR Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, Prime Minister of Montenegro Dusko Markovic as well as Commissioner Johannes Hahn and Cyril Muller, World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia will attend the meeting. The one-day event will be composed of different working sessions during which topics on trade, services, investments and digital economy will be discussed. It is expected that the Western Balkans Prime Ministers will further discuss and will provide strong high level commitment to the implementation arrangements of the Multi-Annual Action Plan for the Regional Economic Area which was agreed upon in Trieste Summit. Furthermore, it is expected that the results Berlin Process yielded so far and the prospects of Western Balkans regional cooperation will be one of the subjects of discussion. Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations issued a statement in which says that the focus of the meeting will be on boosting the implementation of the commitments taken at the Trieste Summit in July 2017, especially the action plan on the deepening of regional economic integration. “The Regional Economic Area agreed at the Trieste Summit will provide new opportunities for businesses and citizens alike and strengthen growth and jobs. The next concrete steps include the mutual recognition of professional qualifications, identifying and scrapping red tape and regulatory barriers that impede trade and investment in the region, setting up a regional dialogue on digital transformation, and launching negotiations on a dispute settlement mechanism,” said Hahn in the statement. He also added that the European Commission strongly supports the Western Balkans’ regional co-operation as an integral part of their EU accession perspective, through substantial investments in connecting infrastructure, economies and people within the region itself and between the Western Balkans’ region and the European Union.