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Poland, Europe not fully united without Balkans

At Poznan summit focus on the importance of integration

05 July, 10:51
(ANSA) - BELGRADE - "Europe will not be fully united without Western Balkans", said Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz at the opening ceremony of a Western Balkan summit in the Polish city of Poznan on Thursday, the Polish public television reported.

The Poznan meeting is part of the so-called 'Berlin Process', launched in 2014 by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel to step up regional cooperation in the six Western Balkans countries, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Serbia. The initiative aims also at contributing to the integration of the region into the European Union. Before Poznan, similar summits were held in Berlin in 2014, in Vienna in 2015, in Paris in 2016, in Trieste in 2017 and in London in 2018. Poland is currently presiding the 'Berlin Process'.

A "stronger cooperation" between the EU and the six Balkan countries that are still out from the European Union is needed and will increase "stability and development" in the region, Czaputowicz added, Radio Free Europe reports. "Including these countries in the main current of European integration will be fruitful for the entire EU and the entire continent," the minister noted. Previously, in an interview with a Polish daily, Czaputowicz underlined that "the societies of Western Balkans countries are pro-European," but the minister warned that "delaying the process of integration, as well as creating artificial barriers may change their attitude." On Monday, the French president Emmanuel Macron said that he will "refuse any kind of enlargement" of the European Union "before a deep reform" od the bloc's "institutional functioning." (ANSA).

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