On Monday 27 August, European Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn stressed the importance of implementing the regional economic area in the Western Balkans.
"We are now concentrating on the continued implementation of the regional economic area", he said at a press conference following the informal meeting of the Western Balkans' leaders in Durres (Albania).
He highlighted the region's potential "as long as trade conditions can be improved in the region so as to remove formal or informal trade barriers". Indeed, while the region "has made considerable efforts to reduce non-tariff barriers over the years", progress in implementing this has been "frankly speaking, slow", he said in his introductory speech at the meeting.
Hahn notably denounced the total blockage on trade in services throughout the region and called for specific action plans on investment and to increase transparency, saying that "You must consider your neighbours more as partners than competitors!"
Nevertheless, when speaking to the media, he hailed the start of negotiations on the mutual recognition of academic diplomas and certificates. He said he hoped this would be ready for the next Berlin Process summit in Poland next summer.
Similarly, Hahn underlined the importance of connectivity. "Better connectivity is essential for intra-regional trade", he said. It is important "to step up efforts in several domains where progress has not been satisfactory: the reform measures for energy connectivity in some countries; and the simplification of border crossing procedures". He added that it is also important for the regional agreement on roaming to increase from four countries (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia) to six, integrating Kosovo and Albania. "This is a pre-condition for the reduction of roaming costs between the EU and the Western Balkans", he said.
Hahn spoke about the progress made in recent months, saying that "As regards the economic integration agenda, what has been achieved thus far is already remarkable". Over 800,000 jobs have been created over the last five years and intra-regional trade is on the rise for the first time in years, with an increase of over 13% in trade in 2017 compared with 2016, he said. "The establishment of a single market of 18 million people changes the situation for private investors looking for market opportunities", he said in his introductory speech. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)