The Open Balkan is an initiative launched in October 2019 by the leaders of Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia. It aimed to establish an area without barriers to the movement of goods, people, services and capital.
Kosovo, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, have refused to join, essentially arguing that the new initiative is redundant as it mimics in poor terms a more robust initiative under the Berlin Process, and that it would only keep each country and the whole region away from the EU.
Abazovic, however, appears more willing than his predecessors to be persuaded to become a member of the Albania and Serbia-led initiative. During an interview with Kosovo media in early May, he said that he agrees to the initiative in principle.
Despite Abazovic's positive stance, the country's President Milo Djukanovic reiterated his opposition the initiative during a recent meeting with Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani.
Djukanovic said that the Open Balkan was launched at a” moment of depression” due to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s expected departure and the EU refusal to advance the Balkan countries’ accession bids.
