Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg attended a virtual conference today along with representatives of several EU member states, the Foreign Ministers of the six current and potential candidate countries in the Western Balkans, and Olivér Várhelyi, the EU’s Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement. During the meeting, which took place under the auspices of the Berlin Process, Foreign Minister Schallenberg stressed that the future of the Western Balkans had to be European.
In his address to the virtual conference, Alexander Schallenberg expressed his regret that 2020 had proved to be a wasted year from the point of view of deepening the region’s ties with the EU. At the same time, however, he affirmed that the six nations of the Western Balkans (Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo) were one hundred per cent European.
This is why we need to build positive momentum and ensure that 2021 does not turn into another wasted year,
he added.
The Foreign Minister went on to stress that recent positive developments in relations between the EU and the Western Balkan states should not be forgotten. He cited the EU’s Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans, which will provide the region with up to nine billion euros of funding, as one such development, and described the way vaccines were delivered to the countries of the Western Balkans (with Austria playing a coordinating role) as another example of solidarity in action. Foreign Minister Schallenberg also called on his audience to ensure that the Western Balkans were not forgotten once the pandemic was over:
We must not forget the states of the Western Balkans, our nearest neighbours, as we work on the post-pandemic recovery, including when it comes to issues like restoring freedom of movement and the future of Europe,
he said.
The Berlin Process was established in 2014. It is a diplomatic initiative that aims to strengthen relations between the countries of the Western Balkans and selected EU member states, and thus to underpin the process of EU enlargement. Along with Austria, the other EU member states represented at the meeting were Germany, France, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Greece.
