Joint press conference by the participating leaders in the third Western Balkans Regional Meeting; Prime Minister Edi Rama, Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev, the President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović, the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić:

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Hello everyone! Allow me to open this press conference following the third meeting of the Western Balkans Initiative to advance processes launched years ago and to implement agreements signed for years now, by expressing first my deepest gratitude for all the solidarity expressed by the three honoured friends, who share the table with me here and from their countries, immediately after the November 26 tragic disaster.
We are grateful to all search and rescue members, as well as individuals and teams that came from Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia to help Albania and Albanians and the quake affected residents in the hardest-hit areas and save people’s lives along with other teams from other countries.
It is an impression that will remain indelible in our memory and on the other hand it is also another meaningful and significant example of the fact that we all share our fate in a territory and a space, where we are all bound to overcome the past and build a decent future in peace and prosperity for all our children.
I would like to extend wholeheartedly thanks to the European Union, the EU representatives, the U.S. Department of State and its representatives, and every representative of other international financial organizations, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, who attended the today’s meeting and support this entire process.
At the very beginning, I would like to say that I would not cease reiterating that this initiative is comprehensive, open, unconditional and not imposed on anyone and nobody can impose it.
We have invited everyone in Tirana, just like it has been the case in the previous meetings.
Let me state it clearly, for me, the repeated refusal by Kosovo authorities to attend this meeting is incomprehensible, and, besides being incomprehensible, I think it is also detrimental to Kosovo itself.
We are here to build a bridge between the past that divides us and the future that connects us.
I am deeply confident that the whole process is in full compliance with the ambition expressed by every country and every country’s commitment to become part of the European family, by joining forces in order to speed up the EU integration process and establish regional standards of the four main cornerstones and freedoms of the EU, the free movement of people, goods, services and capital.
the wounds of the past cannot be healed neither with poison nor with acid, but with medicines and we are not asked to invent cure. It would suffice to take a look at how they have worked in similar realities and how dialogue, talks, and the accord to work together on what we agree has taken the countries and the nations forward, creating way much better conditions for the future generations compared to what they have inherited from the past.

The initiative is unstable and it will go on, being confident that we have all the strength to implement the previous agreements, we have the strength to turn what has been agreed upon at the Berlin Process, in the framework of CEFTA and other initiatives into the overall reality of our nationals, into the reality of the enterprises and business.
In no case does history show that self-exclusion, isolation and refusal have brought any good or planted a tree yielding worthy fruits for the future generations.
Thanking the President of Montenegro in particular, who joined us today in this discussion and whose experience and approach are of great value to this process, I am giving the floor to him, with the approval by the two colleagues and everyone else, the President of Serbia and the Prime Minister of North Macedonia.
President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović: Honorable ladies and gentlemen! First of all, I would like to cordially greet you all and take the opportunity to thank you also in front of my friends, Prime Minister Rama, President Vucic and Prime Minister Zaev for the invitation they sent to Montenegro and me to be a guest today at a meeting of an initiative recently launched by these three countries in our region. I would especially like to thank Prime Minister Rama for the wonderful hospitality.
I would start again with that basic impression I got after visiting Durres.
Unfortunately, today we witnessed the consequences that a natural disaster has brought to this country and to a significant number of Albanian citizens. And this is an opportunity to once again reiterate full and lasting solidarity and good neighbourliness and friendship with, in this case with Albania, but in any case with all countries that find themselves in such a situation because needless to say, Montenegro went through such a similar situation not long ago and enjoyed the solidarity and support of its neighbours and friends.
So that we remain permanently committed and in solidarity with Albania and with the efforts of its Government to remedy the serious earthquake consequences.
I also avail myself of this opportunity to thank you for providing this opportunity to talk today about the potential benefits that an initiative popularly recognized  as a mini Schengen can bring, not only to the countries that initiated it, but to other countries because, as Prime Minister Rama put it, this is an integral part of all thinking and the presentations during today’s conversation were inclusivity: the possibility that anyone who recognizes something good in that initiative can join in either a segment of it or as a whole if we believe that through that collaboration we can bring something good to all of us.
Needless to recall that Montenegro is very, very committed to regional co-operation. We are a full member of 27 regional initiatives, we currently chair 6 such initiatives. This means we strongly believe that regional initiatives are a great opportunity to renew and enhance confidence among the countries of the region, and to build on this trust, cooperation and contribute to the development of each of our countries and the development of the region as a whole.
In addition, we believe that these regional initiatives are a great opportunity to strengthen our capacity for cooperation within those broader initiatives which we want to belong to, and which is why we are talking about European integration most often here.
I would like to emphasize that during the working part of our conversation, Prime Minister Rama mentioned the possibility of Montenegro hosting some of the next meeting of this initiative, and I want to confirm that we are absolutely ready because we believe that dialogue on every important topic and through this dialogue we should try to gather everyone who could find some interest in that dialogue and in that cooperation.
We think that it is very important that we bring in line with the Mini Schengen initiative in line with other regional initiatives and that, as we have mostly heard today, this will be an initiative that will improve implementation. So, through previous initiatives, we have talked about the advancement of these four freedoms mentioned in the mini Schengen, and now is the time to try to make this implementation undeniable and high quality, because we believe that this cooperation will mean new development chances for each of our countries. And secondly, it is very important that in every regional initiative, we actually recognize the chance to make further dynamic progress towards our European goal. Each of our countries wants to be part of the EU, but every one of them wants to Europeanise the societies of our countries, the societies of our region and to ensure that the people in our region are part of the European value system and enjoy a standard of living at the level of the citizens of prosperous Europe.
This is the primary responsibility of each of our governments. Therefore, all initiatives are far more meaningful when we know that they are leading to the achievement of those standards that will pave the way for us to reach a full membership in the integration of contemporary European civilization.
I believe that by talking today, not only to ourselves, but also to the general public, we have succeeded in presenting some of the opportunities that open up in this area, and it will be our pleasure to continue to participate in these talks within the framework of this initiative in the future, and to contribute to the region of the Western Balkans to achieve its full European integration as soon as possible.
Thank you!
President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic: Ladies and gentlemen! Honourable Prime Ministers!
Honourable Mr. President!
What matters most is that our cooperation becomes as intense as possible, but before I elaborate on the concrete steps, I would like to express my condolences to all the families of those who died in this terrible earthquake that hit Albania.
By sending our rescue teams, we sincerely sympathised with the Albanian people. I think most people in your country were able to feel it.
I would like to thank PM Rama for his hospitality, and for sending us to Durres where we met those wonderful kids who had lost their homes, we saw parents and their grandparents and what I can say is that the Serbian government will decide on Monday on a significant and large amount of money to help and I believe it would rank Serbia one of the two, three of four biggest donors helping help Durres, Thumane and other quake-affected areas in Albania.
It is important the fact that our talks focused on ways to further boost our efforts to materialize our agreements. But what would this mean to our people and our countries? I want to transcend this philosophical framework. This means that our search and rescue units will closely cooperate in case such a tragedy hits either Albania, Serbia, or North Macedonia in the future, committing that all teams of other countries will become available to the relevant country and authorities that may be hit by earthquakes, floods, forest fires or other natural disasters.
Of course, we also discussed how to further bolster trade, ways to ease exchange of goods and services.
It seems to me that we have made important decisions. We will certainly sign agreements – no matter where, either in Belgrade of Podgorica – but I think it is of paramount importance to the whole region, because it means that we will continue to build not only our veterinary, hydro-sanitary inspections, but our customs border crossing points will operate 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We will also reduce procedures, provide more lanes at the border crossings, add space for lorries in order to make sure that processing of goods by customs service doesn’t take longer than 5 to 6 hours. we will further try to implement the so-called agreement on the authorized operators.
At the same time, we will sign the bilateral agreement with Albania, as well as with authorized economic operators who will see transit and economic transactions speed up, while reducing costs for export and import companies. This would reduce operational cost and improve standards for our citizens. For the people to understand it better, as many as 320, 000 trucks cross through Presevo each year. This fact shows the benefits this process yields and of course even for those who worry about calling it Mini-Schengen or whatever, will try to create a common job market that implies a comparatively higher level of attraction for investors, which also means that when Macedonian or Serb nationals want to work in Albania, we will all have same systems in place. So, it will be possible for them to simply apply for and obtain permanent work permits in Albania and the same applies to Albanian nationals in North Macedonia or Serbia. It is of paramount importance for all our countries as we face significant problems in the labor market.
Of course, these are problems that would persist in the future too, but we must strive to make trade as smooth as possible and benefit everyone. I have got the impression that one of the proposals we will table at the upcoming meetings will be to align many regulations in order to make a single market of around 11 to 12 million people as feasible as possible and such a market is much bigger, better for each of us and a wider region, the European Union. This is of an incredible importance to the tiny nations with small populations like our countries are.
Thank you very much for your wonderful hospitality and I am hopeful that more good news will be soon revealed for the best of our citizens.
Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev: On this occasion, I would like to express my pleasure and support for Prime Minister Rama to host this meeting. Today morning we visited the tragedy-stricken city of Durrës and I was deeply impressed. I sincerely hope that the prompt assistance from the neighbouring countries and international partners would help heal the wound and the earthquake consequences. Assistance will continue and I urge citizens of our countries to keep providing aid as one of the most important segment of the regional cooperation we are talking about here.
In the meantime, I would like to say that at the next February meeting in Belgrade, the civil emergency institutions will sign a protocol of cooperation and an accelerated activation process to be available to all countries in the region and show better effects of solidarity and cooperation that will benefit all of our citizens. We are taking stock of results following the meetings we have had in Novi Sad and Ohrid.
The 24-hour service cooperation we have offered is yielding results. We will extend lanes and this will be felt by citizens who cross the border crossing points. What we have already shown as an example in Ohrid is that in four weeks only we have signed agreements on border crossings, which is very important and shows that when we work together both North Macedonia and Serbia reap the benefits of such collaboration. In this particular case, and in the case of Serbia’s and from North Macedonia’s Albanians, I saying this for them to understand that this has many benefits and that we all must join forces. In February, following our meeting in Belgrade, the tax administrations of Albania and North Macedonia will sign an agreement on one stop procedures.
The one-stop shop mechanism will be applied at all border crossing points soon. This is one of our goals. President Vucic said that we need to introduce electronic systems, which is the main objective of our customs administrations.
The decision made during CEFTA’s Albanian chairmanship on recognition of the authorized operators is very important and should be implemented.
We decided to sign by February a memorandum on the free movement of people by using ID cards only and unify the procedures for issuing work permits to all nationals of the countries in the region, whether be them from Serbia, Northern Macedonia and Albania, by harmonizing these procedures. The citizens of Albania and North Macedonia will benefit from this system, which includes a single procedure for issuing visa or work permits.
The EBRD’s planned conference on the Western Balkans in February is of an essential importance and each of the countries in the region should take part in this event. Citizens coming from every part of the world, Asia, Europe, Australia and the rest of the world and who enter this region through Hungary or Greece, will not need to have special checks or visas in our region. For example, if a Chinese national lands in Belgrade’s airport he will be able to travel freely to every other country in the region.
What matters most and what is worth mentioning is that Albania and North Macedonia expect a positive decision on accession negotiations next spring, because what we are doing today is a kind of a CEFTA+, or a Berlin Process+, something we can do only together and our citizens would feel it. European partners would also welcome regional cooperation.
Therefore, I would like to express our appreciation to the European Commission representatives attending this meeting. I would also like to express my thanks to the EBRD or the World Bank representatives, Majlinda from the RCC, who are all here with us and confirm that we are all focused on our path to the EU and together we can do more. As I said, the next meeting is scheduled to take place in Belgrade. Mr. Vučić  will set a precise date and, as President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović affirmed, I agree and I am looking forward to seeing next meeting taking place in Podgorica.
We would very much like to see future meetings taking place both in Sarajevo and Pristina, while we will be able to host such gatherings after the May elections in North Macedonia.
Thank you very much for your presence!
-This is your third meeting and nobody is actually questioning, or disputing your good will to take these regional initiatives forward. When the region’s citizens will be seeing tangible results on the issues you agreed today?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: First of all, together with the European Commission and the World Bank we have agreed to draft and ready by next meeting a document, which will be shared with the public, and it will provide a blueprint for the map of the expected development under this initiative, which supports previous agreements and boost implementation of accords with significant economic impact on the region as a whole and on each country in particular, while a summary of achievements will be revealed every six months together with the European Commission and the World Bank, taking stock of accomplishments as part of this initiative.
I am saying this because I happen to come across many conspiracy theories and other non-sense talks, suggesting that the initiative has no impact on every country, except Serbia and stuff like that. But it is absolutely quite the opposite. The process is in the progressive benefit of every country.
On the other hand, I am pleased to underline that the European Commission is readying to earmark 1.2 billion euros for the region next year to support implementation of the agreements.
So, this initiative helps to increase credibility and capacities to absorb funds, not loans, but grants.
Third, I will provide an example. By opening up borders, all those coming from third countries – and I am considering China – to visit one of the countries in the region – Serbia for example, since gladly and regretfully see a large number of Facebook patriots are attacking me – we will be able to record an exponential growth in the number of Chinese tourists to our country, as well as to the whole region, because the package will expand immediately. This is not fantasy, but an economic calculation based on the experience of other countries. A visitor who lands in one our countries will be able to visit other countries without having to go through visa and other border crossing procedures.
I would also highlight the benefits for the Albanian exporters of the agricultural products and construction materials. The Albanian agricultural and construction material exporters are growing. So these measures will be of great benefit to these two groups of exporters.
Who would be saying the opposite?
Who would be claiming that the free movement of people, goods and elimination of barriers and procedures would not translate into economic development and prosperity for the people and business?
his is something that only those refusing to see the reality can say.
Together with the Montenegrin President we talked about the influx of people between Albania and Montenegro during entire season. Montenegro is a major tourist destination in our region, but what would be the mutual benefits if we decide to open the border, eliminating long ques and reducing waiting times at border crossings.
We have agreed to ease procedures for crossing the border at Qafe- Thanë customs point. The agreement will be signed in January. How many times have we happen to see people who are seeking to export to North Macedonia, or vice versa, people from North Macedonia seeking to export their products to our country, but they have to wait at the border crossings even to the point that their products are left to rot, because they should receive a quality and safety certificate from the food authority first.
Unification of the documentation and using a single certificate recognized by other parties – and on this matter we will collaborate with the European Commission to standardize through technology and investment in developing relevant laboratories – will make the difference like night and day compared to the today’s reality.
There are countless examples and whoever wishes to really see the reality can find them form themselves. There is no need to mention them 1000 times: The year 2020 will speak for itself.
I am confident that the data on growth of the economies of our countries participating in this initiative, and hopefully the economies of Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, would speak for themselves by end of next year.
Initial significant signs about impact on growth of economy, employment and direct foreign investment will be recorded as of 2020 and these measures will have a significant impact on the economies of our countries. This is not science, but an expression of willingness to draw lessons from those who are way to more advanced than us, just because they have grasped long ago that one can just lose from self-isolation, protectionism and conspiracy theories, and one can only win through the economic integration.
-The President of Montenegro Đukanović joined the today’s meeting, but would you continue to be four instead of six leaders in the Western Balkans? Would this format turn successful should all the six countries join it? Were there any additional conditions for Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina? How do you comment on Mr. Thaçi’s statements on turning down the invitation and the debate this initiative has triggered both in Albania and Kosovo about Kosovo’s non-participation? The fact that EU and the U.S. became part of this format, but the EU in particular, is it a signal that they are blessing creation of a Balkan union, acknowledging that enlargement with new members from the Western Balkans is not on the EU agenda?
President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović: I think it is quite clear. I do not recognize so far in any participation in this dialogue the idea that another union, in this case you mentioned the Balkans, supersedes our idea of being part of the European Union. Even if that came up, our answer would be – no, thank you. We want to be part of the EU, and we want to remind ourselves that we have been working hard for a long time in this area and have been negotiating with the EU for seven years, among other things. Therefore, we are not ready to change the strategic course, we have not in the meantime come up with any new findings that would make us hesitate about such a decision, on the contrary, you have seen that we have recently announced our position to oppose the idea that after seven years the rules of the game will change, are establishing initially at the Thessaloniki Summit in 2003, and definitely and finally by opening negotiations with Montenegro in 2013. So, our goal remains Montenegro as an EU member, we do not think we need any substitute, we do not recognize such an offer anywhere, and as what I have already said is that we support all regional initiatives that bring us closer to this goal.
Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev: We would like to point out that the EU and the U.S. support for me personally helps efforts to accelerate our EU membership and nothing more than that. The cooperation we are about to launch will would speed up and will relief the citizens’ impatience and eagerness to push on the EU integration, the transforming processes that would build Europe right here. This can be achieved through our cooperation too. We see room and potential for regional cooperation that would accelerate the EU integration process and bring about a higher standard of living for our citizens, our societies and economic growth. In this way we would serve better our citizens and EU states would recognize this.
It only shows the growth of our aspiration to become members, neither more nor less. European values are all what our citizens expect and our duty is to offer this our citizens.

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić: I would like to answer the first question: What benefits our citizens are entitled to? What tangible benefits they are entitled to? I think this is the best question. I would answer in two ways. First of all, we cannot survive without this. This is not being seen by those who don’t actually want to see it. Nobody would survive without this because we are small and insignificant if we do not increase our labor and economic markets, if we do not unite and work together.
How many young people have left Bulgaria, Croatia, Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia? Would you be able to name one single country where young people have not been and are not leaving from? How are going to get these people back? How are we going to convince those still here not to leave our countries? By creating a climate of conflict and war, just because could help us politically?!
I was annoyed with our friend Edi few days ago, because it looks like he is always taking a defending positions. Why should we defend? What should we defend from? Because we are seeking to do our best for our own countries, because we are defending ourselves from those who wish to see us go back to the XVII and XVIII centuries and see us again fighting each other rather than work and live next to each other, build a normal future and think how we help each other?
I enjoyed the last night concert, but I felt sad too. I learned more about the Albanian culture than ever before and I would like to thank Prime Minister Rama for providing us this opportunity. I would like to ask you; could you name a single action, or a bad thing we are doing here? I am very happy that many international representatives are attending the meeting. I am really happy, yet I can’t take the master’s role, because to me it would be much better and it is much more important what our citizens think about what we are actually doing. What could possibly be wrong for our people if Serbia would be able to offer its help and offer decent housing for 100 Albanian families, provide food for many Albanian, Serbian, or Macedonian families by creating new jobs. Why should we feel ashamed of this? This would be the best invitation we can extend to investors. A number of new German factories are opened which exchange engineers, economists and experts. They will face no problem in doing so in the future and, if everything goes well they can even build a factory in Albania. How would we attract foreign investors? By fighting? Levying new taxes? Imposing new customs fees? Let me clarify on something.
This will not be finalized in three months’ time. People won’t see the benefits in three months, but remember what I’m saying. Look at the growth of these three countries, or 4 or 5 or whatever countries, after 3 years. Compare it with some others because creating such an environment takes years and only then will you see the best possible results and all the businesspeople know this much better.
When it comes to Europe, there are no conditions on anyone. Everyone is welcomed. We are on our European integration path. Six years have passed since we opened the accession negotiations. I would like to thank everyone for what they have done, but we primarily depend and should first pray to God and then pray to them just to open two or three negotiating chapters? No, I don’t like see myself and my people humiliate. I tell my people: we are doing our job and it is only you the ones to tell us whether we are doing good or bad. You name it, but it does no longer depend on us. It depends on the people and their internal circumstances and I say this openly and publicly. Everything depends on what they will be doing and their future policies. We can say whatever we want, but all to no avail. We could be the best ones, but it is of no avail because there are certain European states that wouldn’t be able to open the accession negotiations with the EU today. If we were to do what certain European countries do, we would be hanged in the sense that all four of our countries would be highly criticized in Europe.
So, let’s do what depends on us, what we can do and not what doesn’t depend on us. The way we organize our region largely depends on us and not on the great powers and nobody else. If we understand each other better, then we would be able to build a better life and nobody would underestimate us and we will learn to appreciate each other a lot more. Thank you and sorry for talking so long.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you for the question and, as I already said, I wouldn’t bother to reiterate that this initiative is comprehensive and it excludes nobody and it imposes no conditions. Let me bring a very simple fact that explains everything to your attention. For more than 20 or 30 years, I don’t know exactly how many, but anytime votes are needed and anytime one should play politics they all predict the border opening between Albania and Kosovo. The border will not open. And it won’t open, not merely because people in Belgrade protest against it, but people in Washington and Brussels protest too. Through this initiative, we are calling to open all borders and no conditions will be imposed. It would be rightly considered unacceptable if Kosovo’s absence were to be as a results of a condition imposed by Serbia. But there are no conditions of whatsoever. In the meantime, there is no exclusion clause for any of the agreements we agree upon. So, if we agree with Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia to liberalize every aspect, then could you tell me what possibly Kosovo wins by refusing to join this initiative? Meanwhile, no one is saying this should not be offered to Kosovo, quite the contrary. And on the other hand, I’m very sorry about the statements. They are statements for internal political gains on a path I consider blind for Kosovo.
Kosovo needs no isolation, it needs no self-exclusion, it doesn’t need an internal race for who is most refusing the integration and inclusive processes and, above all, Kosovo needs not to upset those who supported it in its most difficult days. U.S., EU representatives are here today, four countries that have thrown their door open to two other Western Balkan countries are here today and if Kosovo needs today respect, integration and economic development, this is the way.
Other ways of neo-Marxism fantasies, absurd protectionism – have you seen any poor country applying protectionism policies? – and comparisons with the U.S. or Chinese tariffs are suicidal both in economic and political terms, because friends, supporters and partners in the process are attending this meeting here. They are all here. And the last thing I want to state is that this is not being done for power or votes. If we were doing this for power or votes, then we wouldn’t probably be here today. This is being done for the future. This is being done for the people, the ones we often forget whenever talking about politics. This is for the common people, for individuals dealing with entrepreneurship, people who want to work and move freely, people who want to see investments taking place, because, as it was said here, we are very small and divided, but if we want more investments in the strategic sectors, if we wish for more investments in energy and in every other sector that can host major investments, then we should offer an open market to the potential investors. Serbia is the country hosting the largest foreign investment volume to date, but still completely insufficient for Serbia itself too.
How easy is it for us to move labour forces freely in this market, how easy is it for us to integrate human resources? These are the investors’ questions, not politicians’ questions. So thanking each and every one of you for attending, I want to summarize it one single sentence; This is an initiative for the future, not a chimney for the past.
We are building a bridge between the past and the future. The past divides us, the future unites us, while in present we should courageous enough to see eye to eye with each other and tell what each of us thinks about the past, but we should also be courageous to also see eye to eye with each other and cooperate for the future. We could heal the wounds of the past only by cooperating for the future. If we drown in the acid of the past, we would kill the future, but I will never let this happen as long as I will be serving in this position.