EU-Balkans: European Commission, Von der Leyen to visit Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from tomorrow to 6 October

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will be in the Western Balkans from tomorrow to 6 October to visit Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The trip takes place ahead of the EU-Western Balkans Summit on 6 October, the European Commission announced in a statement. The first stop will be Tirana, where the president is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Edi Rama and President Ilir Meta tomorrow morning. Together with Mr Rama, she will attend the inauguration of the “Korb Muça School and Europa Kindergarten”, which was rebuilt with EU funds under the EU4Schools programme after the devastating 2019 earthquake. Tomorrow afternoon, Von der Leyen will travel to Skopje, North Macedonia, where she will meet Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and President Stevo Pendarovski. Together with Mr Zaev, the president will visit a youth cultural centre. On 29 September, Ursula von der Leyen will be in Pristina, Kosovo, where she will be received by President Vjosa Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti. There she will visit the Cicerimat Kindergarten, which was built with EU funds, together with Kosovo’s Prime Minister. The President will then travel to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, where she will meet President Milo Đukanović and Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic. She will then visit the Institute of Public Health which received EU support in the fight against the pandemic. On 30 September, she will arrive in Belgrade, Serbia, where she will meet President Aleksandar Vucic and Prime Minister Ana Brnabic. Together with President Vucic, Von der Leyen will take part in the launch event of a railway project on Corridor X and will witness the signing of a contract for the rehabilitation of a section on the Peace Highway, funded by the EU. The last stop will be Bosnia and Herzegovina, later on Thursday, where the president, together with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zoran Tegeltija, will attend the opening ceremony of the Svilaj Bridge connecting Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Sarajevo, Von der Leyen will meet the Presidency members of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Iva Mihailova