Donald Tusk: EU will Remain the Most Reliable Partner of the Western Balkans

We have just concluded a very good and fruitful EU-Western Balkans summit. I thank for the Bulgarian hospitality, Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council said on 17^th of May at the press conference after the EU-Western Balkans summit, held in Sofia.

I believe that it took us too long since our last meeting in Thessaloniki fifteen years ago, and this is why we decided to meet again in two years in Croatia. This is the best illustration that the integration with the Western Balkans is a top priority for the EU.

The European Union will remain the most reliable partner of the Western Balkans, Tusk said in his speech. We discussed how to improve connections with and within the Western Balkans region. We are speaking about human, economic, digital and infrastructure connections. The package of measures we signed a while ago - the so-called "Sofia Priority Agenda" - adds new initiatives to our current cooperation. For example, we agreed to double the Erasmus+ to allow more youth to study in the EU. We agreed to work towards the lowering of roaming charges and we agreed to create more favourable conditions for private investments by providing better bank guarantees.

The connectivity agenda is neither an alternative nor a substitute for enlargement. It is a way to use the time between today and tomorrow more effectively than before, so that our citizens and businesses are not waiting for all the benefits of EU integration, he added.

There is no other alternative, there is no plan B. The Western Balkans are an integral part of Europe and they belong to our community, Tusk noted.