Skopje, 13 November 2023 (MIA) - The European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni at a panel discussion "Continuing to Build Economic Bridges during Difficult Times" at the 20th Vienna Economic Forum on Monday, said that the new geopolitical context is a new boost for enlargement.

"This new boost is an opportunity for the Western Balkans to overcome difficulties, vetoes, and the slowness we have been experiencing in the past couple of years. It is not easy. But there is geopolitical boost, and this will affect the entire process of enlargement and I believe that we should use this opportunity," Gentiloni said.

He noted that effects of global events have been felt around the world, adding that "the European economy has shown impressive resilience in the face of these shocks. We had good growth in 2022, and if we look at next year's perspective there can be some level of growth again. In any case we avoided recession. But, we know that growth is losing momentum and the European Commission's predictions will be published next week, and given the strong trade, investment and financial links that we share, the growth dynamic in the EU will also affect other parts of Europe."

In that contact, the EU Commissioner added that "thanks to the growth of geopolitical tensions we faced many crises that have brought us closer together, at least potentially."

"We increased our micro-financial assistance, extended solidarity measures within the Union, we supported vulnerable households and we are helping to build new infrastructure to reduce dependency on Russian fossil fuel," Gentiloni highlighted.

It is of great importance, according to Gentiloni, for the Western Balkans to be brought closer to the single market, deepen regional economic cooperation, accelerate fundamental reforms and increase pre-accession funds.

"This, according to us, is a new approach in the sense that we are not only asking our partners to take new steps towards us, but we also try to take big steps towards them. We are opening our single market in a number of key areas, including free movement of goods, services and workers, the single, energy and the digital single market. Access to the single market has been the main driver of growth and key to accelerate economic convergence with the rest of the EU and the rest of the advanced world economies," stressed Gentiloni.

Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski, along with PMs from Albania, Kosovo, Bulgaria-  Edi Rama, Albin Kurti, Nikolay Denkov, and Moldovan Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization, Dumitru Alaiba, also addressed the panel.ssh/ad/

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