Poland supports Western Balkan EU bid: FM

He was speaking in the Hungarian capital Budapest, where he met his counterparts from the regional Visegrad Group and top diplomats from several Western Balkan nations on Wednesday.

“The European integration process by South East European states helps strengthen the security and progress of the whole continent,” Waszczykowski said, as quoted on his ministry’s website.

Waszczykowski took part in a meeting of foreign ministers from the four-nation Visegrad Group and top diplomats from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo, and Serbia.

The foreign ministers of Bulgaria and Romania along with representatives of Croatia, Slovenia and the Estonian presidency of the Council of the EU were the meeting’s special guests, according to the Polish foreign ministry.

The talks in Budapest focused on the Western Balkans’ European prospects and challenges to regional security such as terrorism, organised crime and illegal migration, the Polish foreign ministry said.

Waszczykowski said: “Poland has supported Western Balkan states in their bid for EU membership for many years. It has shared with them its experience and good practices from the EU accession process.”

He added that Poland supported reconciliation processes in the Western Balkans.

“Poland shares with the Balkan states its experiences of the reconciliation process with Germany,” Waszczykowski said, as a seminar for young people from the Western Balkans was under way in south-western Poland to share experiences of Polish-German reconciliation.

The Visegrad Group is a regional cooperation initiative that brings together Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. (gs/pk)

Source: msz.gov.pl