Rama: With the Open Balkans beginning a new era in the region

Albania's prime minister, Edi Rama, today's agreements that are expected to be signed under the “Open Balkans”, have been dubbed the beginning of a new era in the region.

At today's summit in Tirana, the head of the Albanian government said that “Open Balkans” is a comprehensive initiative aimed at having full freedom of movement of people, goods, capitals and services.

He before Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq and Northern Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev again appealed to the re-producing states of “Open Balkans to join this initiative.

I am very pleased to say that today is a key moment of our process because the agreements that will be signed will determine a very important step, towards our objective, which is to guarantee the full freedom of people, goods, capital and services. Open Balkans is a completely inclusive initiative and certainly encouraging others in the region to be part of this effort, and in the meantime we're moving forward because that's what we should do for the best of our people. In freedom of goods, we will sign the trilateral agreement on facilitating the import-exports of living animals and mutual recognition of documentation issued by our official accreditation bodies, as well as implementation of the memorandum of Understanding of Equipment of Imports and Transit of Goods between the three already signed in Skopje last July”, Rama said.

He said that with today's agreements under the “Balkan Open” the year 2022 will be a new era for three countries' businesses.

The signing of agreements prepared with a lot of zeal and willingness by our teams serves to deliver a very concrete message to people, especially to producers, to farmers, to exporters and importers who are already working in a common space. The message is that with these agreements, 2022 will be a new era, the beginning of something completely different for them, when it comes from going to the point of dealt with a different border”, he added.

Among other agreements expected to be signed are the conditions for free access to the labour market. Joint schemes for electronic identification of citizens at border points, for co-operation in the field of food security, for mutual recognition and for economic operators.