"Eurointegration of Western Balkans should not stop"

"Eurointegration of Western Balkans should not stop"

Austria and many other EU member-states believe that the statement made by the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker that there would be no enlargement in the next five years does not mean that we should be sitting arms crossed, doing nothing in terms of the European integration process, he said.

Fischer also said that the countries of the Western Balkans had to do their part of the job and Austria would support them in their efforts.

The Austrian president said that that the main message from the Western Balkans Summit in Vienna on August 27 would be that there was indeed the prospect, the need and the possibility of European integration and that efforts needed to be made in that direction.

At the end of the Brdo-Brijuni Process summit, Fischer met with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic to discuss efforts that Belgrade was making in the EU integration process and the situation in the Balkans.

They described relations between the two countries as "very good" and said that there was willingness on both sides to further improve dialogue at all levels, the Serbian president’s press office said.

“We hope to increase trade exchange and Austrian investments, especially in infrastructure, industry modernization, energy, renewable energy and eco projects,” Nikolic said.

Fischer agreed with Nikolic that the two countries had come to their historic best in terms of relations.

Serbia is the biggest and the most important country in the Balkans and we therefore need to meet more often, Fischer said.

Nikolic invited Fischer to attend together with him the celebration of 100 years since the establishment of the hospital in the Serbian city of Valjevo in World War I, of which he is the patron.

Prior to today's meeting with Fischer on the sidelines of a Brdo-Brijuni Process summit in Budva, Montenegro, Nikolic met with the Austrian president at an event marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, in Salzburg on March 7.

Security

The Western Balkan countries are faced by security problems to which they must find a joint response, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic warned at conference in Budva, Montenegro, on Monday.

Nikolic expressed regret over troubles that have been multiplying in the region recently, as has the feeling of alarm over incidents and the recent brutal terrorist attacks.

Addressing the participants of a summit of the leaders of the Brdo-Brioni process, he said that the countries of the region can truly be brought together only by a justice-loving condemnation and a reaction to incidents such as those that recently happened in Macedonia.

We must take such temptations in the most serious manner and always, and on every occasion, discuss together what we need to do to preserve security, not only in each of our individual countries, but in the entire region, Nikolic noted.

Therefore, the fight against terrorism and all forms of extremism and radicalism is a priority task for all Western Balkan countries, he noted.

Serbia is firmly oriented towards responding to contemporary security challenges, and it is also striving to contribute to the fight against terrorism through its role as OSCE chair, President Nikolic said.

He called for condemnation of the recent terrorist act by ethnic Albanians in Kumanovo, northern Macedonia.

Nikolic qualified it as a vicious act of extremists who use terror to achieve their political goals, adding that some countries regrettably dismiss such acts as “incidents".

"We are astounded and deeply concerned over the latest brutal act by Albanian terrorists in Kumanovo. What has happened there is unacceptable. Also alarming is the fact that this crime is sometimes labeled simply as “urban guerrilla”. You can easily imagine the barrage of accusations, followed by threats and actions, against some other perpetrators, even for acts of much smaller scale,” he said.

An objective and expert investigation is needed to shed light on what really took place and what was done to punish the perpetrators of the crime in Kumanovo, Nikolic pointed out

In light of these disturbing events, countries in the region should give their support to everything that leads to the stabilization of the situation in Macedonia, the Serbian president underlined.

Energy

Tomislav Nikolic Monday in Budva also called on the Western Balkan countries to improve cooperation in the field of energy supply, stressing that it was in the interests of energy security of the entire region.

“It would be good if our region would be a crossing point for different (energy and gas) streams and pipelines,” Nikolic said during the summit.

He pointed out that the Balkan countries, to whom energy generating products - primarily gas – were part of natural resources, should pursue a wise policy and find a joint interest in preventing transportation of the fuels bypassing the region.

The Serbian president also pointed out that there could be no real peace and development in Europe without all the countries of southeastern Europe as members a single EU family.

“I cannot help noticing that we all feel that the current member-states are showing a certain indifference to admitting all the countries of the Western Balkans into the EU,” Nikolic said.

The Serbian president proposed that the participants of the summit in Budva should strongly call on Brussels to pay greater attention to EU enlargement and offer concrete support to the efforts of countries in the region to become full-fledged members of the EU.

Meeting with Croatian counterpart

The Serbian president also met with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic in Budva on Monday for the first time, and said he was satisfied with the encounter.

Nikolic told reporters after the summit's plenary session that the conversation they had had been friendly.

“I am happy about my first meeting with the new Croatian president. She likely realized that she made mistakes in some of her statements, that have been rectified. I did not make mistakes, because I'm not in the habit of commenting on events in other countries," he said after the meeting.

Asked whether he had been invited to visit Zagreb, Nikolic said it was not up to him to be inviting himself, but added that there were hints about cooperation between the two cabinets.