Even Varherly part of the “Open Balkans” meeting in Tirana

Tirana will be the host city for the upcoming Open Balkans meeting, which this time aside from the Atlantic Council will include the European Commission.

For two days, on Monday and Tuesday 20th and December 21st, leaders of the three countries involved in the process -- Prime Minister Edi Rama, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Serbia's president, Alexander Vuciqm -- will formalise this initiative aimed at free movement of people, goods, services and capitals by signing five agreements.

Zaev and Vuciqi, accompanied by several of their ministers, and the heads of their countries' chambers of commerce will arrive in Tirana on Monday afternoon.

On the first day, an official dinner is envisioned at a resort in the city of Elbasan, the same where the gathering of two Albania-Kosovo governments took place, where they will be present and a representative of the Atlantic Council Jim O'Brien, as well as Alex Soros, chairman of the Open Society Foundation. On Tuesday, the meeting will begin at 0900 in the Brigade Palace.

The teams of the three countries will join and Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varherly online, as well as CEFTA director Emir Djikiq, and Majlinda Bregu as secretary general of the Regional Co-operation Council.

The first agreement to be signed by Rama, Vuciq and Zaev, is about the conditions for free access to the labour market.

Other agreements concern: joint schemes to identify citizens at border points, for co-operation in the field of food safety, for fair recognition of economic operators.

The Tirana meeting closes with the joint press conference of the three leaders. On the first day of this summit, a part of the Albanian opposition led by former Prime Minister Berisha has announced a protest before the prime minister against the “Open Balkans” initiative. /tvclean.al/