“Cooperation among Benelux countries could be a good example for Western Balkans countries. Different studies show that Benelux countries were not necessarily compatible for cooperation but the success of their interaction is a result of their determination for cooperation,” said Rama.
TIRANA, May 27 – Cooperation among Benelux countries offers to Europe the success model in building cooperation and integration, Prime Minister Edi Rama said this week in The Netherlands speaking at the Hague Institute for Global Justice.
“I think that cooperation among Benelux countries could be a good example for Western Balkans countries. Different studies show that Benelux countries were not necessarily compatible for cooperation but the success of their interaction is a result of their determination for cooperation,” said Rama.
Considering the EU as the final destination for Western Balkans, Prime Minister Rama said Albania was actively engaged in promoting joint projects and concrete initiatives as key elements to the success of European integration.
“Aware that regional cooperation is a key factor in the success of integration, the Albanian government remains fully committed in regional projects in the fields of infrastructure, energy, health, tourism, culture and the labour market on which we are undertaking fast liberalization steps,” said Rama.
Speaking about the Trans Adriatic Pipeline bringing Caspian gas to Europe, Rama said the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline, would pave the way to new cooperation and innovative projects among Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia.
“Even though field implementation has not started yet, TAP has promoted integration in Western Balkans and South East Europe, integrating their whole region in global development networks,” added Rama.
The Group for Regional Economic and European Integration (AGREEI), an NGO created to support the economic and European integration of the Southern Balkans countries of Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro has been pushing for the creation of a market of eight million consumers with free movement of goods, services, capital and people and a cross border cooperation which could be a short term solution and actually support the EU integration process of this region and maybe even speed it up.
Successful examples of regional cooperation within the European Union such as Benelux, Visegrad and the Nordic Council provide models which could be followed also for SB4C. Similar to the cases of the member countries in these cross-border models, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro would strengthen each other in their common efforts to succeed in the world economy, says the Association.
The Balkan Benelux will foster EU integration of the four countries, complete with a co-operation treaty with the creation of a Balkan Benelux as an international institution by 2017, Adrian Shehu, co-founder and president of AGREEI, has earlier said.
