Incident between Serbia and Kosovo presidents dominates media coverage
PODGORICA, June 8 – Presidents of the Western Balkan countries met in the resort seaside town of Budva in Montenegro to discuss on their joint efforts toward regional cooperation and individual steps toward membership in the European Union.
Albanian President Bujar Nishani joined the host Montenegro’s Filip Vujanovic, Serbia’s Tomislav Nikolic, Slovenia’s Borut Pahor, Croatia’s Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Macedonia’s Gjorgie Ivanov Macedonia, Kosovo’s Atifete Jahjaga and Bosnia’s Mladen Ivanic at the event.
Austrian President Heinz Fischer was also present at the summit as the summit is also attended each year by a president of an EU member country.
The region is currently looking to create joint projects as part of an agreement reached in Berlin last summer under the auspices of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Austria is the other EU country directly involved to promote such a cooperation.
During the meeting the presidents talked on the issues in the region, like the recent political crisis in Macedonia and also the threat of terrorism linked to religious radicalism.
The reporting of Albanian media on the summit focused primarily on a statement of Serbia’s president addressing his Kosovo counterpart.
Nikolic was reported to have told Jahjaga that she is not his peer, should not have been invited to the summit and that she represents a state not recognized by half of the world.
Jahjaga is reported to have ignored the comments.
