The Albanian government has approved an agreement with Serbia and North Macedonia allowing companies operating in the field of security and defense to benefit from reduced customs and border procedures.
The three leaders of the Open Balkan initiative – Edi Rama, Aleksandar Vucic and Zoran Zaev – will hold their 7th summit in Tirana on December 20-21 to sign a deal on recognizing work permits issued by one of the three countries. They have pledged to remove border checks from January 2023.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro have refused to join the initiative, fearing it would harm their focus on European Union accession efforts. They maintain that the Berlin Process and the related Common Regional Market initiative fully answer the region’s needs in terms of the economic cooperation intended by Open Balkan.
In Albania, the part of the opposition led by Sali Berisha has called for a protest against the Open Balkan and Vucic’s presence in the country for the first time since Rama, Vucic and Zaev launched the initiative two years ago in Serbia. Berisha called Vucic “Milosevic Junior”, recalling the current Serbian president’s work as minister of propaganda for the Butcher of the Balkan, Slobodan Milosevic.
