Southeastern Europe

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.

Ljubljana, 24 June – Portugal will hand to Slovenia as the next EU presiding country many dossiers, including the endorsement of national recovery and resilience plans and EU enlargement to the Western Balkans, Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said after meeting his counterpart Anže Logar in Ljubljana on Thursday.

She was welcomed in front of the Austrian government building by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
The Austrian office published photos from the summit of the Western Balkans, which is being held in Vienna under the auspices of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
The published photos show Kosovo Prime Minister Kurti and Serbian Prime Minister Brnabic.

The Turkish foreign minister and EU foreign policy chief are scheduled to have a bilateral meeting in Antalya, southern Turkey on June 18. 

During the bilateral meeting, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Josep Borrell will review "all aspects of the relations" ahead of EU summit that will be held on June 24-25, said a statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

On the occasion of the executive order of the President of the USA, Joseph Biden, on the expansion of emergency measures in the Western Balkans, the officials in Brussels say that the EU has its obligations towards partners in the region, and that sanctions are not part of the current European policy in the Western Balkans.

"The European perspective continues to be a major driver of change in the Western Balkan countries and young people and the civil society in these countries play a key  role in this process," said caretaker Foreign Minister Svetlan Stoev on Tuesday.

Brussels – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described today’s meeting with President Borut Pahor ahead of Slovenia’s presidency of the Council of the EU as very constructive, saying she appreciated “the enormous energy with which the presidency will work on the resilience and recovery of the European Union after this heavy pandemic”.

Rebooting the System

The European union flag flies over the apostolic palace during visit of the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen at the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis, Vatican City, 22 May 2021. EPA-EFE/FABIO FRUSTACI

Tirana – The foreign ministers of Slovenia, Austria and the Czech Republic, Anže Logar, Alexander Schallenberg and Jakub Kulhanek, stressed the role of EU enlargement to the Western Balkans as they met senior Albanian officials in Tirana on Sunday, a day after visiting neighbouring North Macedonia.

Skopje – Foreign minister of Slovenia, Austria and the Czech Republic, Anže Logar, Alexander Schallenberg and Jakub Kulhanek, expressed support to North Macedonia’s EU path at a working visit to the country on Saturday. Macedonian FM Bujar Osmani thanked for their support and called for EU accession talks to start as soon as possible.