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At the end of July, the leaders of Serbia, North Macedonia, and Albania met in Skopje, where they agreed to bolster regional economic integration, vowing to abolish border controls between their countries by January 2023. They named their initiative “Open Balkans” or “Mini-Schengen” – after the European Union’s free travel zone. The announcement comes as leaders in the Western Balkans are growing disillusioned with what they see as a stalled EU accession process. The news has thus far been met with cautious encouragement from the West. Damir Marusic, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and the co-author of a recent op-ed in Foreign Policy on the Open Balkans initiative, joins The Greek Current to talk about this latest development in the Western Balkans and what it could mean for the region. 

Read Damir Marusic and Benjamin Haddad’s op-ed in Foreign Policy here: The Balkans Don’t Believe the EU Anymore

You can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:

A Mini-Schengen in the Balkans

Greek-US relations, Afghanistan dominate Mitsotakis-Menendez meeting

Turkey begins evacuation of troops from Kabul airport

Turkey will not act as EU ‘warehouse’ for Afghan refugees, says Erdogan

Greek-US relations, Afghanistan dominate Mitsotakis-Menendez meeting

Senator Bob Menendez’s speech at the Acropolis