The leaders of Macedonia, Serbia and Albania called on the new social-democrat led Government of Germany to support their new initiative, which was borne out of frustration with the delays in the integration of the Balkan countries in the EU. Zoran Zaev, Aleksandar Vucic and Edi Rama wrote a joint editorial in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung calling out the new German Chancellor Scholz.

We hope that the new Government in Germany will accept and support the Open Balkan initiative as a contribution to fully implement the Berlin process. The wish of our citizens to be accepted by the EU member states was obstructed several times – because of domestic politics in the member-states, failure to keep the promises and fear from what the future brings. It led to disappointment, instability, emigration and lack of meaningful investments. As political leaders of these countries, we could complain about this, or do something about it. We decided to do the latter, the letter says.

The initiative is meant to reduce the remaining obstructions to free trade and movement between Macedonia, Albania and Serbia. It meager replacement for the loss of EU perspective, but seems to enjoy the support of the US administration and billionaire George Soros.