site.btaForeign Minister Zaharieva Talks with Western Balkans Counterparts in Sarajevo

Sarajevo/Sofia, March 16 (BTA) - Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva talked in Sarajevo with the chief diplomats of the Western Balkans countries which have not joined the EU yet, the Foreign Ministry said.

The Sarajevo forum brought together foreign ministers Ditmir Bushati (Albania),
Igor Crnadak (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Behgjet Pacolli (Kosovo), Nikola Dimitrov (Macedonia), Ivica Dacic (Serbia) and Srdjan Darmanovic (Montenegro). They discussed the region's political integration in the EU, as well as possible connectivity projects which could be financed under various programmes.

Zaharieva said: "The EU wants to support the six countries of the Western Balkans with specific projects. At the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Sofia in May we would like to agree on specific initiatives, besides offering political support."

Zaharieva recalled that last year it was decided to allocate 500 million euro under seven programmes for infrastructure connectivity in the Balkans (194 million euro from the EU and the rest through credit lines from the EIB and the EBRD and in national co-financing). This decision was made at the Western Balkans Summit in Trieste (Berlin Process), attended by Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

The EBRD Western Balkans Investment Summit in February, attended by the six countries' leaders and Borissov, allocated 800 million euro for specific projects. The EBRD alone has invested over 10 billion euro in the region.

The European Commission has managed to attract 48 million euro in additional financing under the Western Balkan Enterprise Development and Innovation Facility, which is expected to generate nearly 250 million euro in revenue for companies in the region.

Zaharieva said she believes that Macedonia and Albania are ready to start EU membership negotiations, and hopes that this will take place during Bulgaria's EU Presidency. As to Serbia and Montenegro, work towards their progress on the negotiating chapters is under way.

Christian Danielsson, Director General for Enlargement at the European Commission, and the six foreign ministers specially noted "the active Bulgarian EU Presidency", which put the Western Balkans back on the EU agenda after a 15-year hiatus.

Earlier on Friday, Zaharieva and her delegation met with Igor Crnadak. She congratulated him on Bosnia and Herzegovina's success in delivering to the European Commission the answers to its Questionnaire with 3,242 questions, which is the first major step to that country's EU integration.

She added that she found the EU Strategy for the Western Balkans very positive, and assured her counterpart that the first reactions of the EU Member States had been very positive.

For his part, Crnadak said that the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighbourliness and Cooperation between Bulgaria and Macedonia set a unique positive example to the entire region of the way to solve outstanding issues, and that Prime Minister Borissov's visit to Skopje for the commemoration of the Jews deported to the Nazi death camps showed that the treaty is not on paper only.

At the end of the meeting, the foreign ministers of the six Western Balkans countries adopted a declaration. They thanked Zaharieva, the Bulgarian EU Council Presidency and the organizing committee of the 2018 Western Balkans Summit (Berlin Process) in London in July for their contribution to the region's integration.

Talking to Bulgarian reporters at the Sarajevo forum, Zaharieva said it was the first meeting of foreign ministers of the Western Balkans countries to which Bulgaria had been invited. She said: "Everyone, including the European Commission representatives, thanked Bulgaria for bringing back the focus on the region and its perspective, saying that now is the time to achieve concrete things."