Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama hailed the Open Balkan initiative as the “future of Western Balkan countries”.

During his address at the 30 anniversary of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, PM Rama also weighed in on the country’s EU integration.

The Albanian prime minister does not believe that Europe will keep its word on holding Albania’s first Intergovernmental Conference.

“Who would have thought that it would be Bulgaria (on the veto) while during the whole time we were focused on the elections in the Netherlands, and no one can foresee 100% that another country will not go against”, said Rama.

But while waiting for the EU to open its doors, the Albanian prime minister said to shift his attention to the Open Balkan.

“The Open Balkan is the right idea at the right time, and without a doubt, everybody will embrace this idea step by step. This is the future, there is no other way to open up completely to with each other”, he said.

The Open Balkan initiative, earlier referred broadly as the “Balkan Mini-Schengen” has only been endorsed so far by Albania, Serbia, and North Macedonia.

The initiative was first introduced in Novi Sad on 10 October 2019 by the leaders of the three founding countries.

Kosovo has refused to be a part of the initiative, meanwhile, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina have declared to look at it as bystanders.