Participating leaders held a joint press conference at the end of the Agenda of meetings on the Open Balkan initiative:
Prime Minister Edi Rama: First of all, I would like to welcome the journalists from North Macedonia and Serbia and thank them all together, including our journalists, for the time they devoted to this intense day and for the patience they showed while waiting for this press conference.
It is indeed a pleasure to inform the public today that we have signed a number of agreements that finalize an intense joint work and that as not always, due to the very nature of the agreements, the ones signed today will be a tangible reality in the very near future, precisely in January 2022.
– The Agreement on the free labor market, which provides the opportunity and guarantees all citizens in the three countries immediate right and equal access to work and residence permits.
– The agreement for the integrated electronic services system, which paves the way for creation of a common electronic system, to grant opportunities to all citizens applying for certain services, starting from the applications to register for residence permit in another country or for work permit, and so on, to do so without leaving their home or location via their smartphone and nearest computer.
-Common en-bloc agreements to finally remove the last hurdle standing on the way of those who for years interact among these countries as exporters and importers, and who have been through a difficult history of long waiting times and going through continued checks and verifications, allowing them starting next January to cross the respective border points freely, without having to obtain the same documents three times, when it comes to the required documents for export and import of agricultural and livestock products.
It is worth underlining that the agreement will allow for the first time the export of livestock products, including that of live animals, based on reciprocity and trust between the competent counterpart authorities, which in this case, work as one.
It is long-awaited news for all of those involved and operating in livestock and meat production activities, because none of our countries are granted access to the European Union market, but in the meantime these producers in our countries are really interested in accessing new markets.
All these agreements, which are neither less nor more than agreements already operational in the common market among EU member states, based on the very same principles and the farmers and the common regional markets, which is being used as an alibi against the Open Balkan framework initiative, but which can be materialized under this initiative only.
I underline that the agreements we signed today are tangible evidence to a very simple fact; Open Balkan is an initiative that pushes forward what has been already continuously discussed at the Berlin Process summits, and what has been already agreed upon during the long chain of summits in the context of that process, but that were never materialized.
Open Balkan initiative is an implementation unit of the Berlin Process and an implementation unit of the Common Regional Market. This is the reason why we have joined this initiative. This is the reason why we have declared the initiative as an inclusive initiative since day one.
This is the reason why the three other parties should join us for their own good, for the best interest of the citizens in each of six participating countries in a bid to take the economy and Western Balkan society forward.
Likewise, I believe it was clear today as the European Commissioner for Enlargement openly stated that the European Commission fully supports the Open Balkan initiative and invites the other three countries to join it.
If you noticed it, the Commissioner regretfully underlined and acknowledged the failure of the common market, as a process, which was built on consensus.
The reason why we have taken this initiative is precisely to create the opportunity for all Western Balkan community to determine for themselves the speed at which they want to move forward.
We are seeking to move forward as fast as possible and we are aware, given the experience we have accumulated throughout the “Berlin Process”, that moving forward as fast as possible can be attainable only if we take matters here in our region into our own hands.
Concluding these opening remarks and underlining that the initiative is now taking a complete meaningful shape with a significant impact on the citizens’ lives and work, and for this reason, support for the initiative, whether from the US administration or the European Commission, or from a number of EU member states, comes and will continue to grow due to the fact that the objective of the initiative is very clear; to make our region a space where the freedoms of the European Union work for our citizens; namely the freedom of movement of people, goods, capital and services.
We have decided to meet again in North Macedonia by end of next February so to advance this process and we have decided that once the non-tariff barriers are removed, as I already noted, we will again address the removal of the tariff barriers for exporters and importers within the space of these three countries, as our goal is to build a border-free Balkan for everyone to move freely, for the goods, capital and services to move totally freely.
This was a brief outline of a very intense work and I am now giving the floor to the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, and the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev.
President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic: Dear Prime Minister of Albania, Mr. Rama, dear Prime Minister of North Macedonia, dear friends! I would like to first thank our friend Edi Rama for the hospitality here in Albania, both in Elbasan and here in Tirana. I would like to underline that I am really very happy about the agreements we signed today, as this is the crowning achievement of a two and a half-year work.
We have been discussing these things, but we had yet to complete some of the bureaucratic procedures, but thanks to the persistence of all of us, the persistence of our teams as well, we have succeeded in getting things going so that the citizens of our countries, namely North Macedonia, Albania and of course Serbia, can reap benefits from these accomplishments.
I would like to say that when I came to Albania, Prime Minister Rama was opposed to the Open Balkan initiative by those who claim that I am seeking to build a Greater Serbia or by those who claim that the Open Balkan is an initiative that has to do with Greater Albania. This initiative has to do neither with one thing nor the other, or a Greater Macedonia and let’s not waste our time with such discussions about the past, because talking about these things, we will not be able to do something for the future, rather we need to focus on the future, discuss it, where we are and how to get there. The things we have done for the farmers, for our producers and for the fact that they can live better in the civic future of our countries. So, we want to see more tourists from Tirana, from Skopje, certainly not only from these cities, but from both countries to visit Novisad. In the meantime, you can succeed in attracting a higher number of visitors from Serbia, who can spend their holidays on Albania’s beautiful beaches, or on the wonderful lakes of North Macedonia.
After all, what we are already doing has to do with tangible results for our citizens, the benefits we provide to them and being in Tirana today, I am saying this not only as an individual, but also on behalf of Serbian citizens, I want to express my respect for all citizens of Albania, North Macedonia, for your families and I would like to welcome you to Serbia. I want to see Serbia as your second home, because we, too, want to feel that way whenever we visit Albania or North Macedonia, Tirana or Skopje and therefore it is important that we keep going on with the intensive work on all the issues that Edi clearly spoke about, namely the removal of non-tariff barriers first and the tariff barriers later, so that no borders exist for our private companies and firms, so that we can create the opportunities to attract more foreign investors. For example, last night we discussed a range of important issues with Albanian, Serbian and Macedonian business people and we realized they were satisfied with the accomplishments we have already delivered through the Open Balkan initiative and this is very important for us.
Finally, allow me to express appreciation to Zoran Zaev, as he has done really a lot and this initiative exists thanks to him.
We have agreed to reiterate at every press conference the invitation to our counterparts in Prishtina, Podgorica and Sarajevo and it is important for us to again realize that after all we are doing all these for our citizens, because it is not that we want to issue political appeals or that we are extending political invitations, but what we want to do, regardless of the political gains each of us can score, we want these three capitals to join us in this initiative so that we can deliver tangible results; namely how to attract more visitors from each of our countries and to each our countries. Mr. Rama also proposed that a special fund be allocated for the film industry, basketball and other areas.
We have also launched discussions to explore ways to lower tariffs applied on highways in the Open Balkan participating countries, as well as how to lower restaurant and hotel prices.
Let me ask a question: isn’t this the most direct benefit possible for all those who are participating in this initiative? And that’s why sometimes I get bored – I mean with myself – because we keep calling on our counterparts, as if we could not exist without them. I would like to thank Edi Rama and Zoran Zaev for being so persistent in all this and I know that all this will change the Western Balkans. We are not ashamed of this name we bear; we are not ashamed of this region where we live in, or of this initiative that is in the best interest of our citizens, who have already seen some of these achievements.
You, for example, have come across the debate about his cousin, who was working for a Skopje-based company and was later invited to move to Belgrade. So, every month we had to issue licenses and permits allowing him to stay, but he will no longer have to obtain permits thanks to these agreements, namely the work permits issued either in Tirana or Belgrade, and such permits will be valid also in Skopje. This way we put an end to these bureaucratic procedures, but in the meantime we want our citizens to establish more people-to-people contacts and any institutional contacts among education institutions, the deans and rectors of agricultural universities, for example. Let’s try and deliver things so that people can realize these things are in their own best interest in the best shared interest and if we really want to work together for integration into the united Europe, why don’t we do so now? I would really like to thank our host, Mr. Edi Rama.
Zoran, thank you very much for everything you have done and all the efforts you have done. I know that you will officially tender your resignation tomorrow, but I would like to thank you for everything you have done for the friendship between Serbia and North Macedonia, as well as for the friendship among our three countries. I would also like to welcome Mr. Kovachevski and extend my wholehearted thanks to all of those who have done a lot of work to deliver all these accomplishments and I think the Belgrade summit will take place by May or June, when we plan to jointly host a wine fair to showcase our finest wines. We will invite our partners from the Western Balkan region, as well as from Europe and Eastern Europe, so that we can hold the best possible fair in Europe. We will work together anytime possible, and we will do so and once we join Brussels, we will be able to resolve several issues, including the green lanes.
Thank you everyone and again thank you for your excellent hospitality!
Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev: Honorable, President of the Republic of Serbia, honorable Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, respected media representatives, honorable citizens! I want to thank Edi and the Albanian people and the Albanian government for the hospitality! We all feel at home here, regardless of whether we are in Tirana, Skopje or Belgrade.
Today is my last day in office as Prime Minister of North Macedonia and it is my pleasure and a privilege to personally commit and directly contribute to accomplishing the noble mission of the Open Balkan as an initiative.
Since launch of the initiative, I and my colleagues, my friends and brothers, Aleksandar Vucic and Edi Rama have highlighted the fact that Open Balkan is an authentic joint process launched by Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia, but also designed to deliver benefits to everyone in the region and is open to all the countries in the region.
The remaining countries in the region have been extended an open, clear and unequivocal invitation to join. We encourage all the countries in the Western Balkans to jointly contribute to this shared area and establish closer ties with each other to develop economically, most importantly without barriers, without restrictions, to be free, and adapt all this development to the needs of our people.
We call for contributions so that the Open Balkans initiative becomes a Western Balkan initiative to provide benefits for all our citizens and for their daily lives through a common market. Today we are presenting concrete steps in front of the citizens of our countries, in front of the citizens of our region. In Tirana today we signed trilateral agreements, namely the interconnection agreement on electronic identification schemes for Western Balkan citizens, and agreement on cooperation on the area of veterinary medicine, food safety and phytosanitary policy, as well as the agreement on the free access to the labor market in the Western Balkans.
Through these agreements, we provide the citizens of North Macedonia, Albania and Serbia with access to electronic services available on the national portals of the three countries by creating electronic identification “Open Balkan”, which marks the start of the implementation of the possibility for facilitated and unhindered access to the labor market in the three countries.
As soon as the agreements are ratified in the parliaments of North Macedonia, Albania and Serbia, the citizens of the three countries will be granted the opportunity to move freely and work in each of the countries. In this way we connect our human resources, we consolidate our market, we connect the economies, and we become more competitive, stronger and even more ready for further development.
We relate to the clear, open and public intention of our peoples to feel the immediate, economic benefits of the facilitations we provide. The benefits will soon be felt by thousands of families in the region in a very near future. These agreements represent further significant steps towards the region’s Europeanization, as we apply the best European practices at home, because our region is in Europe. When President Vucic and Prime Minister, together with me designed the Open Balkan vision, we agreed to avoid domination of Euro-skepticism in our countries, taking notice of the failure of European policies. The Open Balkan initiative lives up to the European ideas and values that are always bigger and more attractive than the European administration and in that respect this initiative is a strong contribution to the great ideas of the European Union, a contribution that brings the region closer to the European Union itself. When the EU fails, we have an obligation to constantly and continuously take initiatives that Europeanize the region and deliver better European living standards for our peoples. Of course, all three countries remain committed to their separate agendas and obligations for accession to the European Union. Brussels may decide to slow down the process, but Europeanization and meeting the European standards in Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia should not stop. The agreements on the free access to the labour market, based on the EU principles, represent concrete steps towards implementation of the standards that the EU itself applies. We are implementing a common practice in the EU now, based on the agreements signed among the EU member states themselves. We have clearly emphasized that the Open Balkan initiative is not a substitute for the EU, but it is a facilitator of the European idea in the Balkans. The Balkans are Europe and nothing less than that. Of course, all three countries remain committed to their agenda and to fulfilling their obligations to join the EU.
The Open Balkan initiative is a strong link, which has received clear and strong support from businesses, from the chambers of commerce of our countries, which have agreed that the Open Balkan is the platform the region needs. I am grateful to the United States for its support and for the very strong support from a number of EU member states and of course this clear encouragement that comes from EU representatives. This support confirms that we are implementing a sustainable process for a common economic and political space in the Western Balkans with concrete benefits for all our citizens.
Allow me to conclude this last speech in my capacity as North Macedonia’s Prime Minister thanking President Vucic and Prime Minister Rama for the common belief in this initiative and the needs of the Open Balkan.
Open Balkan is an irreversible process. There is no reason to backtrack from this journey, which exclusively seeks to foster cooperation among people in the region. We need to remove barriers that impede the free movement of people, capital, goods and services.
