Western Balkans Summit at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany
Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other attendees pose for a family photo at the Western Balkans Summit at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Nov. 3, 2022.
👉 Western Balkans leaders signed agreements on mutual recognition of identity cards, university degrees and professional qualifications Thursday at a summit in Berlin.
This move towards closer integration aims to bring greater stability to a region that emerged from the break-up of Yugoslavia and the ethnic wars of the 1990s and is still wracked by tensions.
They also aim to bring Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania closer to their stated goal of joining the neighboring European Union amid fears about the rising influence of Russia and China in the region.
Serbia, in particular, which was bombed by NATO two decades ago, has long struggled to balance historically close ties with Russia against aspirations of economic and political integration with the West.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz received leaders of the six Balkan countries and the EU in Berlin on Thursday as a revival of the so-called "Berlin Process" that his predecessor Angela Merkel put in motion. (Reuters)
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