14 minutes agoEscobar: No alternative to European integration for the Western Balkans
Periskopi(4 years ago)
(4 years ago)The US Special Emissar for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said there is no alternative to European integration and that EU assistance in that process is the only answer to the future economic crisis. Escobar said to the panel of the Black Strategic Forum, which brings together leaders of the region and other countries [...]
Escobar said to the panel of the Black Strategic Forum, which brings together leaders of the region and other European countries, that the EU must do much to simplify the process.
“But much more work must be done by state governments on their side to enable the integration process, while some states fail to meet their obligations at all,” he said.
Escobar said the only answer to the future economic crisis is the economic integration of the region and that it supports any initiative of this kind, including the “Open Balkans initiative”.
We don't need a new integration strategy. We need to invest twice as much energy in implementing the strategy we now have”, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State said in the “European Union panel and the Western Balkans: Who's up to”.
The EU's special representative for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and other regional issues of the Western Balkans, Miroslav Lajcak, said the EU is undoubtedly ready for the countries of that region.
The subx0> the moment is there and the states know exactly what is expected of them. For Serbia it is very important that the EU see progress in dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina”, Lajcak said.
He said the EU is looking at how the elections will turn out in Bosnia and Herzegovina and how institutions will be formed and that Montenegro will “obtain the compass it lost two years ago”.
High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt said that now that the Western Balkans are in a strategic conflict situation, the EU must do much institutional work on its side to facilitate integration.
I'd like to see a change in political culture in states. Integration must come from the people and not only from the law. This is the key to peace”, he said.
Schmidt said the region does not need another Dayton agreement, but that people in Bosnia and Herzegovina love each other and take the initiative by deciding what needs to be done.
The six Western Balkan countries must focus on their relations with the EU. In the second plan is regional exchange, where the number of problems that slow it” should be reduced, Schmidt said.
