WB6 fears Open Balkans has the potential to undermine regional cooperation

TIRANA, June 17 – The Open Balkans project will compete negatively with the Berlin Process and lead regional integration in a fragmented direction, said Strategic Group 6 of the Western Balkans (SG6 of WB), an organization for democracy and human rights with headquarters in Sarajevo.
The group’s statement quoted by Rel on Friday said that the initiators of Open Balkan avoid explanations of how the project will be in line with with the Berlin process.
“The Open Balkans is not bound by any EU standard and regional leaders can head it in ways that cannot be controlled from the perspective of EU enlargement policy,” it is said in the statement which added that the launchers of the Open Balkans avoid explaining how the project will align with the Berlin Process and enlargement policy, as well as the further regional common market, and how feasible it would be to create two frameworks aimed at regulating the same thing.
The statement referred to the dilemmas of Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, which are not part of the Open Balkans, over the comprehensive nature of the initiative.
“There are concerns that the Open Balkans project is creating a gap between transatlantic partners,” said the statement, adding tha. Serbia as one of the initiators of the Open Balkans, is facing warnings of a slowdown in EU membership negotiations because it remains insistent on avoiding full harmonization with EU sanctions against Russia over its occupation of Ukraine.
“In this sense, the Open Balkans has the potential to create divisions and undermine the nature of regional cooperation on an equal footing,” the statement noted. /Argumentum.al