Open Balkan Initiative is better for Serbia than European integration

Open Balkan Initiative is better for Serbia than European integration

Political analyst Dragomir Andjelković adds that the accession of Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the "Kosovo entity" is crucial for the future of this project.

Andjelkovic told Tanjug that the Open Balkans, as a forced solution due to the halt in European integration, gives our country the opportunity to connect with the region, cooperate to the maximum with the European Union, but also keep its strategic economic and geopolitical partners from the east.

"The key is whether the countries from the region will join. If Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entity of Kosovo join, I think the matter is complete and will come to life. If they do not join, that is a partial solution," he said.

Andjelkovic explains that Western countries, although they cannot directly join the Open Balkans, cannot only compensate for European integration through this initiative, but, he adds, make a step forward in foreign policy.

"EU members cannot be integrally connected, they can have special arrangements and be additional bridges with the EU, just as such arrangements can be built with non-European countries from Turkey to China, of course, and above all, with Russia", says Andjelkovic.

He claims that the Balkan countries will achieve better interstate relations through economic integration, which, as he says, is evidenced by the conciliatory messages of the leaders of Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia from the summit in Tirana.

"We can have economic benefits, but also social and national ones. Within this initiative, all Serbs can connect, all Albanians, all Muslims... in short, to realize our national aspirations in a rational way, and to prosper," Andjelkovic concluded.