“The Berlin process will be reconfigured this fall” / Coast: Funds need to be bigger

Emphasizing that this process does not replace the path to the European Union, in an interview with journalist Sokol Ballan of “Top Story”, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council, says that regional cooperation develops countries and attracts more large investors.

“Each of the countries in the region is a very small market, taken on its own, it is not interesting for a large investor. A large investor comes with demands for a more qualified market and labor force, which is difficult to find not only in one place. For example, I mention several times the case where the minister covering innovation and technology in Northern Macedonia told me when a German company came to ask me for 1,000 IT specialists for business and we did not tell them. In case we would not make possible the recognition of the process of diplomas and academic titles and in case we would not seek to function in a process to strengthen the common market, it will be increasingly difficult to be an interesting market for large investors. “But that does not mean that if we become good within ourselves, that is enough for everyone.”

There is a kind of awareness that when you need it, the first door you will knock on is the neighbor’s door. For this reason, the process of regional cooperation, year after year, has had a greater support, says Bregu, adding that for this reason the Berlin Process has been created.

“At the moment when the process of European integration or enlargement began to cool, in 2014, the Berlin Process began, that is, to keep the six countries of the region, political leaders, the processes developed, close. How to give them an opportunity to strengthen themselves until the moment when together they become members of the European Union. “But this did not turn out to be a success story either, as it will continue with the second phase of the Berlin Process.”

Coast reveals that the Berlin Process will be reconfigured this fall.

“This is the latest information, at least from the autumn of this year, we expect to have greater clarity. There may be a new summit of the Berlin Process, coinciding with the departure of Chancellor Merkel, who was the main author of this process. “Of course the war in Ukraine pushed decision-making into the German chancellery, but there will be a reinstatement on stage this autumn.”

The other problem that accompanies this process is the funds, says Bregu.

“Because in addition to meetings, in addition to dialogue, in addition to opportunities to talk to each other, to cooperate, every process requires an investment from behind. Today I am listening again, the theses we are hearing today, and those proposed by Macron, when I recall and go back in time, that this work has this bad when you are 20 years old and remember things, I remember our first proposals , at least since 2009, when we proposed to the European Union, a new strategy for the annual Assistance Funds that the EU gives to countries in the enlargement process, that our countries receive. They were not few, around 90 million euros. And the logic is that a country, before becoming a member, is in the process of being more backward, there are fewer roads, fewer schools, fewer good standards in re-education institutions, then there are opportunities to invest in the health system… and logic leads that funds should be greater before membership. As of today it is one of the basic points of the new proposal of the French president for the new community, so a country walks, is helped, financed, becomes part of the community, part of Europe as a continent without being a member country. But by approaching policies one by one. And this whole process is running, we like it, we do not like it, we are running towards this format. That is, how can we be a member country without getting membership. “We can have some benefits for European citizens.”

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