Olaf Scholz, meeting with Kurti and Vucic on Monday in Tirana?

2023-10-13 17:53:13Politikë SHKRUAR NGA ANILA SHUKA
Olaf Scholz, meeting with Kurti and Vucic on Monday in Tirana?
The previous Berlin Process summit took place in November last year in Berlin. The signing of three mobility agreements was celebrated there as a major achievement. So far they have not been implemented, mainly due to the tense relations between Serbia and Kosovo.

The German Chancellor will take part in the Berlin Process Summit and is expected to hold bilateral meetings with the representatives of Kosovo and Serbia.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will travel on Monday for a short visit to Tirana, announced the spokesman of the German government, Steffen Hebestreit, on Friday, 13.10.23, at the press conference of the German government in Berlin. Scholz will attend the Berlin Process Summit, which is being held for the first time in a country outside the European Union.

The Berlin Process is a 2015 initiative to support the EU integration of six Western Balkan countries, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro. North Macedonia, Serbia and Albania.

In addition to Chancellor Scholz, the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the president of the EU Council, Charles Michel, will also participate in the meeting. The previous Berlin Process summit took place in November last year in Berlin. The signing of three mobility agreements was celebrated there as a major achievement. So far they have not been implemented, mainly due to the tense relations between Serbia and Kosovo. The mobility agreements would be an important step forward for the creation of the Common Regional Market, within which so far only the reduction of roaming charges has been achieved. According to the spokesperson of the German government, another topic is ecological transformation and digitalization.

Hebestreit said that Scholz will also seek contact with representatives of Kosovo and Serbia, as he did in Granada, Spain, at the meeting of the Political Community. Whether the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, will also participate in the meeting in Tirana, this is not yet known, it was said in Belin.

The difference between Serbia and Kosovo

After the terrorist attack in Banjska, the differences between Kosovo and Serbia have deepened even more. Kosovo, although it supports the initiative of the Berlin Process, expects from the meeting that a clear attitude towards Serbia will be maintained. I expect that "it will be explained that it is a direct threat to the European integration project, and it will even be stated more directly the responsibility that the Serbian state had in the act of aggression on September 24", said the Speaker of the Parliament of Kosovo, Glauk Konjufca, in an interview with DW.

At the preparatory meeting of the foreign ministers of the Berin Process, which was held last Friday in Tirana, the foreign minister of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, refused to appear in a joint photo, where the Kosovo flag was in the background.

The German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, said at the meeting that the path of the countries of the Western Balkans towards the EU is possible only together, and by recognizing and respecting territorial integrity. It can only be done when you understand that security is mutual.

Even the German government's representative for the Western Balkans, Manuel Sarrazin, told DW in an exclusive interview that tensions such as those in Banjska, on September 24, should not be repeated and that they are toxic for the entire region./ DW


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