Berlin Process

She was escorted from the Belgrade airport by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vui.
A photo of Vui saying goodbye to Merkel was published on the Instagram profile of "buducnostsrbijeav".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Belgrade on Monday, where she will meet with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić to discuss political and economic cooperation and the EU integration process.

For their part, Marusic and Haddad are decidedly optimistic about the project's significance, writing: "Coming on the heels of the breakthrough Prespa agreement between North Macedonia and Greece, initiatives like Open Balkan signal that something important, and indeed healthy, is happening on the ground: Local leaders are taking ownership of their fate and showing creativity."

"The German government has information about the Open Balkans initiative. We believe that any regional cooperation in the Western Balkans should be welcomed," reads a written answer to Tanjug's question about Germany's position on the Open Balkans initiative.

She told her successors that the process should not be interrupted and that, despite the need for a lot of engagement and patience, they should use the opportunity to accept the countries of the Western Balkans - Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia.

Leaders at an online summit on Monday, part of the Berlin Process, an initiative to boost regional cooperation among Western Balkan countries and their European integration, pledged to boost economic ties while affirming the need for EU integration of all the countries in the region.

On the occasion of the upcoming virtual Berlin Process Summit, scheduled for Monday, hosted by Germany, in a video message on Sunday, Merkel said she was happy, although it would only be a virtual meeting, which would allow her to continue working with the heads of state and government of the Western Balkans, launched in 2014 as part of the Berlin process at Germany's initiative.

Brdo pri Kranju – EU enlargement is one of Slovenian EU presidency priorities and a response to strategic challenges, Prime Minister Janez Janša told Thursday’s press conference after a meeting between the government and the EU Commission delegation marking the start of the presidency stint. Slovenia will host an EU-Western Balkans summit in October.

During their meeting in Berlin, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas signed a joint declaration in which, among other things, they reaffirmed their countries' commitment to the security, stability, prosperity, and full sovereignty of the six Western Balkans countries, as well as to their European and Euro-Atlantic paths.

After successfully enlarging to the south and to the east, the EU is in the process of integrating the Western Balkans, located at the very heart of our continent.