Angela Merkel: 'Political stability of the Western Balkans Means Political Stability For Us as Well'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the European Union is committed to bring the Western Balkans region "slowly but surely" to EU membership, reported BGNES.

"Political stability in the region means political stability for us as well. We know this from the past experience, "she said at the European Forum for the Western Balkans in the Italian city of Trieste.

Earlier, the Austrian Chancellor, Christian Kern, expressed a similar point of view, pointing out that the clear European perspective for the region should be returned.

The leaders of some of the European Union's biggest economies, including Germany's Angela Merkel, offered incentives to the states in the western Balkans to move closer to joining the world's largest trading bloc and stabilize the continent's most volatile region, according to Bloomberg Politics.

Merkel met French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and the leaders of Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania at a summit in Trieste, Italy on Wednesday.

The leaders were set to endorse the idea of creating a regional economic area and discuss 220 million euros (2 million) in aid for infrastructure projects, European Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said. He didn't provide details.

"We have a shared task in ensuring that these countries develop properly and can draw closer to the European Union,step by step," Merkel told reporters. "Political stability in this region also means political stability for us -- we know that."

Almost two decades following Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II, most of the fragments of the former Yugoslavia are struggling to integrate with the EU and join in a wave of prosperity that...