Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Meets with Western Balkans Counterparts in Sarajevo

Not only political support, but also plans to fund specific projects under different programmes that would be visible to people's everyday lives is very important for the clear European perspective of the Western Balkans, Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said at a meeting with her counterparts from the Western Balkans at a conference in Sarajevo on 16^th of March. The first diplomats of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and the Director General of the European Commission's Enlargement Directorate gathered at the forum.

This is the first meeting of the foreign ministers of the Western Balkans, to which Bulgaria is invited. Аt the forum, Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva stressed that the European Union wants to support the six countries in the region with specific projects and Bulgaria's wish was to agree such initiatives at the summit in Sofia in May. She recalled EUR 500m allocated in seven Balkan infrastructure connectivity programmes last year in Trieste as well as the € 800m agreed at the EBRD investment forum in London last month. Only this bank's investment in the region so far exceeds 10 billion euros.

Additionally, the European Commission has been able to attract € 48 million in additional funding under the Western Balkans Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Programme, which is expected to generate nearly € 250 million in revenue for companies in the region.

What we have agreed and what everyone expects to see is specific tools for the implementation of the projects that we all have agreed that are important. You know that the Prime Minister and our team has prepared a map of all the important infrastructure projects of the TEN-T network corridors - road construction, but also of railways, the 5G network, and of electricity related projects, Ekaterina Zaharieva said.

Christian Danielson, Director-General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Enlargement, and the six foreign ministers specifically highlighted the "active Bulgarian Presidency", which reverted the topic of the Western Balkans back to the EU agenda after 15 years.

Today's meeting has sent a very important message, namely that the future of the Western Balkans is at the top of the agenda of the European Commission. The European perspective of the Western Balkans means a perspective for the whole of the European Union, Christian Danielsson said.

The best way for quicker success is our common work on specific projects. Along with infrastructure, the reduction of roaming charges is of paramount importance to the everyday life of the people in the region, Igor Crnadak, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina said.

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