Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama, his counterpart from North Macedonia Zoran Zaev and the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic will meet next week on regional cooperation.
Zaev confirmed the meeting during a joint press conference with Kosovo’s Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti on Friday in Skopje.
“We expect Kosovo to join the regional cooperation [initiative] led by North Macedonia, Albania and Serbia […] Next Friday I will have a meeting with President Vuic and Prime Minister Rama, in which one of the topics will be to send a joint invitation [to Kosovo],” Zaev stated.
Zaev added that the implementation of the four freedoms – of people, goods, services and capital – through the initiative is in the interest of all the region, and it will enable its faster integration into the European Union.
The Mini-Schengen initiative was launched by the Vucic, Rama and Zaev. It envisages the free movement of people, capital, goods and services between the six non-EU member states in South-East Europe.
On September, Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti stated that he was pushed by the US administration to change his long-held position against Kosovo’s participation in the Mini-Schengen initiative.
“I was against [the Mini-Schengen] but I was asked by the White House to join this regional initiative. So our position was against it, but we were asked by the White House and we agreed,” Hoti stated, after signing the agreement on economic normalization with Serbia at the White House.
