Prime Minister Edi Rama is attending a meeting of the leaders of Western Balkan countries, the European Union and the United States senior officials, and representatives of international financial institutions in Skopje, North Macedonia, to discuss the European Commission’s Growth Plan for the Western Balkans already on the EU agenda to support the region’s accelerated integration in the European common market, and provide funding for the economic priorities.

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Good morning everyone, 

I must say that this is truly, because we are here to put together out thoughts with the EU and the U.S. administration senior representatives about the major steps we can and must undertake towards moving closer to the European Union. It is about the new Growth Plan and integration into the internal market.

The latter has been so far granted to the European Union member states only. In this context, it is an incredible change and an excellent opportunity that the countries in the Western Balkans should not miss and that’s why it is crucial that we all, the six Western Balkans countries succeed in working together, it is crucial that we put our citizens first and put politics and history aside, because whatever we do and if we can do it in due time to get things done in the coming months, we will define the way our countries will look like by the end of this decade.

Thank you!