The initiative for the creation of Open Balkan, also known as the Mini Schengen was proposed for the first time by the former prime minister of Albania, Fatos Nano back in the 90s.
Nano’s idea was to create a common economic zone in the Balkan Peninsula. However, this idea wasn’t elaborated further until recently, due to the wars that erupted in former Yugoslavia that would last over a decade.
This initiative has come back to the table after Albanian PM Edi Rama, brought it up during discussions being held as part of the Berlin Process – an initiative authored by German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
In 2018, Rama reintroduced this concept in order to improve political relations amongst countries of the region.
Plans to create an Open Balkan were openly declared for the first time on October 10th 2019 in Novi Sad, Serbia.
This would be followed by another two meetings between leaders of 3 Balkan countries on November 11th 2019, in Ohrid and December 12th 2019, in Tirana.
On July 29th 2021, in Ohrid, Vucic, Rama, and Zaev signed an agreement for the liberalization of the circulation of goods and services, the unification of the job market as well as joint cooperation in times of natural disasters.
Serbs and Albanians make up the two dominating ethnicities in the Open Balkan initiative, due to their extensive spread across at least 3 different countries. The combined GDP of all these 3 countries put together is $88 billion dollars.
So far, only three Balkan countries have come on board, namely Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia, whereas Kosovo, Montenegro and Bosnia Hercegovina have refused to join in.
Kosovo isn’t participating in the discussions about this initiative even though the Washington Agreement signed back in September 2020, foresaw that Belgrade and Prishtina would both be joining the mini Schengen. The main reasons for their refusal are the ongoing disputes with Serbia and their failure to recognize Kosovo’s independence.
Bosnia and Hercegovina and Montenegro have decided to remain spectators despite numerous invitations to join.
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