Tallinn, 10 September 2017 – Member of the European Parliament Željana Zovko participated yesterday in the Round Table about the Western Balkans, held within the Interparliamentary Conference on Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defence Policy (CFSP/CSDP). The Round Table was moderated by David McAllister, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.
Zovko commented on the Berlin process pointing out that the most recent Trieste summit was an encouraging step towards the Western Balkans countries in the field of economic and regional cooperation with the purpose of preparing those countries for the EU membership. Zovko further mentioned that fulfilment of economic criteria should go hand in hand with the implementation of administrative reforms and reforms of the public sector in order to meet market requirements and competition in the unified market, what would create positive effects for economy and more importantly for the citizens.
Zovko said that even though extremely important, economic criteria should not be given priority over the key institutional and political reforms, when it comes to the Western Balkans countries.
“Problems in institutional and political structure may not be as visible as the economic issues. However, if they are left unresolved, they might cause serious consequences.“ – added Zovko.
Zovko further pointed out to problems of political and institutional instability and the potential consequences thereof, such as lack of investment, sluggish administration, corruption or inefficient judicial system.
“The European Union should focus on implementation of institutional and political reforms in the Western Balkans countries, because only these reforms may create stable preconditions for other reforms.“ – added Zovko at the end of her address.