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ZAGREB – Croatian President Zoran Milanović will participate on Tuesday in Tivat, Montenegro, at the summit of the Brdo-Brijuni Process, a joint Croatian-Slovenian initiative aimed at enhancing cooperation among the countries of Southeast Europe and their rapprochement with the EU, which, however, is progressing at a very slow pace.
Montenegrin President Jakov Milatović will host the summit of the initiative officially launched in 2013, co-hosted by Milanović and Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar.
Leaders of the other member countries of the process – Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo will also participate, and Milanović will meet bilaterally with some of them on Monday and Tuesday, Pantovčak announced.
The meeting in Tivat will focus on current issues common to all countries in the region, according to the event announcement.
The declaration adopted last year addressed issues of brain drain from the region, especially among young people, sustainable development, and environmental protection, as well as combating the consequences of climate change, or topics, as Milanović and Pirc-Musar said at the time, that “unite us more than divide us.”
This marked the initiative’s move into calmer waters after a joint declaration was not adopted at the 2022 summit due to disputes over mentioning the constitutiveness of the three peoples in BiH, and the previous year only a compromise text of the final declaration was accepted due to disagreements between Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani and Aleksandar Vučić.
The Western Balkan countries are at different stages of rapprochement with the EU.
Serbia and Montenegro have been negotiating for about a decade, Albania and North Macedonia began negotiations in 2022, and in the same year, BiH received candidate status, while Kosovo has potential candidate status. Five EU countries still have not recognized Kosovo. (October 7, 2024)
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