Although Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is not part of the “Open Balkan” story, in a few days a conference will be held in Banja Luka that will deal with this very topic.
This initiative, which was launched by the leaders of Serbia, Albania, and North Macedonia back in 2019, has no support in BiH. However, in one part of BiH, Republika Srpska (RS), it is believed that BiH should join, which is one of the reasons why the “Know How for Open Balkans” conference is being organized.
In addition to ministers and businessmen from the RS, Zoran Tegeltija, Minister of Finance and Treasury of BiH, Tomislav Momirovic, Minister of Internal and Foreign Trade of Serbia, and Sinisa Maricic from the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) will also participate in the conference.
“First the Berlin process, then the Open Balkan”
“It makes no sense to open the story of the “Open Balkan” until we finish the “Berlin Process”.” This is what Elmedin Konakovic, Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH, says.
Since 2014, BiH has been part of the “Berlin Process”, which brings together six countries of the Western Balkans, with the aim of connecting them to each other before joining the European Union (EU).
In November 2022, the then chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers, Zoran Tegeltija, was in Berlin at the summit of this initiative and signed agreements on the mutual recognition of identity cards, university degrees, and professional qualifications between the countries
The agreements have not yet been ratified.
Who is organizing the conference in Banja Luka?
The conference is jointly organized by the Ministry for European Integration and International Cooperation of the RS and the Association of Young Economists of the RS.
The topics of the conference will be the opportunities and challenges of the “Open Balkan”, readiness for the flow of people, goods, and capital, and global, European, and regional initiatives as a chance for development.
Cenic: There is money on one side, but not on the other
Economic analyst Svetlana Cenic assesses that any approach to the “Open Balkan” is an adulation of Milorad Dodik, the President of the RS, to Aleksandar Vucic.
“The Open Balkan was signed by only three countries, two of which, Albania and North Macedonia, were not given a day to open negotiations [with the EU]. The Berlin Process was signed by all of them. Kurti will never sign, because he withdrew his signature on the Open Balkan, in Montenegro everything depends on who will win the elections, and in BiH, there is also a divided opinion,” Cenic believes.
She emphasizes that the differences between the two initiatives are in the details, but that “behind the Berlin Process there is money for projects”, and that “there is nothing behind the Open Balkan apart from Vucic and that idea”, Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
