Brnabic attends Tirana meeting of Western Balkan leaders

TIRANA - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic attended an informal meeting of Western Balkan leaders in Tirana on Monday.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Brnabic said initiatives as part of Open Balkan and a Berlin Process summit to be hosted by Albania had been discussed at the meeting.

"I am just finishing my visit to Tirana at the invitation of (Albanian) PM Edi Rama. Let me conclude - we had two topics, one of them is definitely Open Balkan, as well as the Berlin Process summit to be hosted by Albania in October this year... We also discussed initiatives we have within Open Balkan, which complements the Berlin Process to quite a degree," Brnabic said.

She said a Western Balkans development plan announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in May and the first drafts and projects Serbia needed to prepare had been discussed at a working lunch also attended by Montenegrin PM Dritan Abazovic, North Macedonian PM Dimitar Kovacevski and EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi.

"I hope it is something that will come into existence by the end of this year so we can try to attract some more funds from EU partners for economic growth and development of Serbia starting from as early as 2024. It should be some kind of a new driving force behind European integration and bringing the Western Balkans and the EU closer," Brnabic said.