DURRES, March 30 – The foreign ministers of the Western Balkans met in the coastal city of Durres this week to discuss regional connectivity projects in the field of transport and infrastructure.
The projects include the Blue Highway, which aims to link Balkan countries along the Adriatic coast from Croatia to Albania, the Durres-Prishtina-Nis highway and the Albania-Macedonia electricity interconnection line.
The two-day meeting follows the Western Balkans Summit held in Vienna last August and aims at boosting regional cooperation ahead of the Paris Conference of Balkan countries scheduled for July.
The countries of the region reconfirmed their commitment towards the Berlin process and the regional connectivity agenda as a key factor contributing to economic growth and the creation of jobs in the region.
The refugee crisis in the region was another important point of discussions in the ministerial, which proposed an increased partnership on migration issues between the EU and the Western Balkans.
Italy has increasingly become concerned about the opening of the so-called Adriatic route, through which thousands of refugees stuck in Greece might attempt to reach Italy by boat via Albania. At the end of the meeting, the ministerial came up with a joint declaration which will be presented to the Paris Summit in July, where Albania will ask for the financing of a railroad project.
The project plants to upgrade the existing railroad system between Tirana and Durres, while also establishing a link with the country’s only international airport.
The meeting was also attended by EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who vowed the financial backing of up to Euro 150 million by the Commission for regional connectivity projects at the Paris Summit.
Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek, whose country holds the presidency of the Visegrad group, and the Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Vincenzo Amendola, also took part in the ministerial.
The meeting of the foreign ministers was held in the framework of the Berlin Process launched in August 2014, a diplomatic initiative set up to highlight the European perspective of the Western Balkans.
