Today marks the beginning of a new era of cooperation in the region. We’re connecting to help our economies prosper. We’re demonstrating political leadership on our own as well as care to advance cooperation. I’m confident it will be recognized by Brussels and Washington, too, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said Thursday opening the Economic Forum for Regional Cooperation taking place in Skopje.
Additionally, he noted, such regional cooperation can play a serious role in relaxing political relations in the region. “We’re open to all initiatives promoting strengthening of regional cooperation and accelerating the EU integration process of all Western Balkan countries.”
Referring to EU accession, Zaev said that the bloc’s failure to deliver on the promise of opening the first intergovernmental conference with Albania and Macedonia goes against the European ideas and against the interests of the EU itself.
“It is also against the commitment of these two countries that met the criteria to join the EU. But, we cannot wait for the EU to solve its internal issues in order to move forward. Whenever the EU is ready, we’re here, we’re prepared having already introduced facilitations for our citizens and developed economic initiatives. We are about to talk about them here, and I hope the EU will find a way to provide funding for them especially because most of them are part of the green agenda,” said Zaev.
