Minister Milatović participates in the 30th Economic Forum in Poland

Minister of Economic Development Jakov Milatović spoke today at the 30th Economic Forum in Poland, within the panel "Infrastructure Development - a Way to Closer Cooperation and Strengthening the Common Market Not Only in the Balkans".

Ten years ago, it was hard to imagine Western Balkans leaders meeting and talking about infrastructure and infrastructure projects. Today, that is a normal thing and I think that we are moving in the right direction, but the fact is that we have lost a whole decade. If the Western Balkans were in the EU, we would probably be talking about "via Adriatica" and not about "via Carpatia", thus connecting Poland with the geographically closest sea, which is the Adriatic Sea, the Minister said.

Milatović said that there are three reasons why the Western Balkans is the least infrastructurally integrated. The first is institutional capacity. Another reason for poor integration is coordination between the Western Balkan countries themselves. The Berlin Process made a significant contribution to the establishment of the so-called transport community, which is now coordinating infrastructure projects in our countries and working on better coordination with the European Commission, and that is one positive thing that immediately gave results.

Finance is the third reason - almost all Western Balkan countries have limited capacity when it comes to funding. The EU and its role has been of great help because the so-called Western Balkans Investment Framework has been created within the Berlin Process, which supports infrastructure projects. Of course, that is not enough.

In order for the countries of the Western Balkans to connect better and faster with the EU, all three preconditions must be strengthened.