Slovenia's Karl Erjavec was among 13 foreign ministers who stressed the importance of further EU enlargement at a conference on the Western Balkans in Vienna on Tuesday. A special appeal was made, including by Erjavec, to make Albania an EU membership candidate at the June EU summit.
The conference focused on the European future for the region, while the ministers also touched on the relief efforts following the recent devastating floods, the Foreign Ministry wrote in a press release.
Erjavec stressed that the prospects of EU membership are the key engine of reform in the region and thereby of stability.
He argued in favour of opening new chapters in the accession talks with Montenegro and Serbia, the initialling of a stabilisation and association agreement with Kosovo and an active approach to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, which are lagging behind on the road toward the EU.
Erjavec moreover signed along with the ministers of Croatia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Greece and Austria, which was the initiator, an open letter calling for finally awarding EU membership candidate status to Albania at the EU's June summit.
As regards the relief effort in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, Erjavec repeated the call of PM Alenka Bratušek for a donor conference.
Meanwhile, a plenary of the Central European Initiative (CEI) was also held in Vienna today, featuring a debate on the future challenges of the initiative, which is celebrating its 25th birthday this year as the oldest and biggest regional initiative.
Erjavec stressed in the debate that the CEI needed to focus on support to non-EU members. He moreover argued for a diversification of energy sources within the CEI's economic area and stressed the importance of an energy community for SE Europe, the ministry said.
Source: The Slovenia Times
