The new phase of the regional common market, ready to be adopted at the next Berlin Process Summit

2024-01-22 18:32:00, Aktualitet CNA

The new phase of the regional common market, ready to be adopted at the next

Majlinda Bregu

Skopje - The Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), Majlinda Bregu, participated in the meeting of BP leaders in Skopje: "The Western Balkans Meets the EU", for the Western Balkans Growth Plan, under the auspices of the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovacevski.

"The future prospect for the Western Balkans will be to enter the EU's common market. The surest vessel to do this is a genuine and fully functional regional common market, unencumbered by regional disputes. This will be a difficult process for both parties, the EU and the Western Balkans. So if we want it to be a successful process for the region, we are clear that we have to do 2 parallel processes this year, which will feed each other respectively The first is the plan for the region's entry into the EU common market, and the other is entering the second phase of the regional common market action plan," said Bregu.

The central theme of this high-level meeting that brought together prime ministers from the Western Balkans as well as representatives of partner organizations was the Joint Regional Market Action Plan, coordinated by the RCC, as the region's step towards the EU Common Market and EU membership, as it ensures the economic development of the region and as such is an essential part of the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans.

During the new phase of the Common Regional Market that we at the RCC began to define, the 4 freedoms of the Single Market will be accompanied by clear strategic goals aimed mostly at increasing human capital such as: education, innovation, digitization, mobility, migration , brain. drainage, women's economic empowerment and the green agenda.

"The second phase of the Common Regional Market will be more complex as the economic structure of the region has changed during and after the pandemic. Skills in the region need to be updated, improved and refreshed. So the new plan of activations for the Common Regional Market that we are preparing now, it will be more colorful and it will be ready to be approved by the leaders of the Western Balkans at the next Summit of the Berlin Process", concluded Bregu.

In addition to RCC, the meeting was attended by representatives of other partner organizations - European Commission, USA, CEFTA, EB Investment Forum, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, World Bank, USAID, Open Society Foundation and the Council Atlantic./ CNA