Open Balkan leaders have agreed to establish an “implementation council” to oversee the execution of their initiative, one of the first major decisions to come out of their collaboration, although no action plan has been provided.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, and Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Dimitrov met in Belgrade for the 6th Open Balkan summit.
On Thursday, they announced that the makeup of the council will be decided at a later date.
The leaders said they expect to remove borders within the year, and that key decisions with regards to the free movement of goods, people and services will be taken at the next summit in Tirana at the end of December, including a memorandum regarding residency permits.
Meanwhile, representatives of customs agencies will meet next week to discuss steps to facilitate such movement in the future.
All three leaders reported that business leaders from the region had given them their full support to the initiative and hoped to see concrete results.
Meanwhile, Rama stressed that the essence of the ‘Open Balkan’ initiative is to ensure economic development for all member countries by expanding the territory covered by the common market.
As an example, he claimed that Serbia’s higher Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attraction rate is due to its larger geographical area compared to its neighbors.
According to Rama, during the latest tourist season, Albania saw a significant increase in the number of tourists from Serbia and North Macedonia, “as a result of the positive energy inspired by the Open Balkan.”
The Albanian prime minister criticized the Berlin Process, saying it was stuck in a loop of summit after summit, that had yet to yield results—results, which he claimed would be achieved by the ‘Open Balkan’ initiative.
Meanwhile, in its six summits, leaders of the ‘Open Balkan’ initiative have reached an agreement that allows their citizens to travel between countries using only an ID.
Meanwhile, in under a year, the Common Regional Market initiative under the Berlin Process has removed roaming tariffs amidst the six Western Balkan members, and has laid out a robust action plan covering all fields.
Rama argued that the Berlin Process has stagnated due to the fact that it requires consensual decision-making from all six members: Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Whereas, with the ‘Open Balkan’ initiative, every member can progress at their own pace.
Asked how they planned to attract Kosovo into the initiative, Vucic and Rama said that doors were open to everyone.
In this respect, Vucic claimed that the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Zdravko Krivokapić, was impressed by the initiative. This latter had promised that he would do his best to persuade his political allies to join the agreement signed by Albania, Serbia, and North Macedonia on mutual aid in case of natural disasters.
Albania has presented a list of 20 companies already screened by the government that will benefit from customs-free movement once an agreement is reached.
Dimitrov highlighted that despite Zaev’s resignation, North Macedonia continues to support the initiative, that represents the will of the people. He said that even if the opposition takes power, that should not change.
