In an unprecedented political move, five green parties from the Western Balkan countries, along with Croatia, signed a declaration on a cooperation platform on Sunday, pledging to work together for peace and the environment, as well as against corruption.
The declaration was signed in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“We want to promise a hundred years of peace to the region. We have had enough of divisions, enough of walls, we have come to build bridges between us. We believe that the whole region should join the EU because there are more things that unite us than others that divide us,” said Amna Popovac, leader of the Bosnian green party “Hocemo” (We Want). according to Klix.ba.
The other five parties are the Albanian Green Party, Ura from Montenegro, Dom (House) from North Macedonia, Zajedno (Together) from Serbia and Orah (Walnut) from Croatia, which is a member of the EU and is not part of six parties from the Western Balkans. but shares a common history with the region as a former member of the defunct Yugoslav federation.
Kosovo is the only country in the Western Balkans whose Green Party has not taken part in the initiative so far.
“We are united by nature, but we are also united by corruption. This is why the Green Parties of the Western Balkans decided to work, in addition to protecting the environment, to fight corruption and maintain the stability and security of the Western Balkans,” Popovac said.
“You see that it is possible to reach agreements. If we, the Greens, have reached an agreement, why shouldn’t the Social Democrats do it? Why wouldn’t the conservatives do it? After all, we have a common interest: a good life for our citizens, and there are 20 million of us,” added Nebojša Zelenović, co-chair of the Serbian Zajedno party.
The six Western Balkan countries have made EU membership a political priority.
Montenegro and Serbia are already in membership negotiations, Albania, North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are official candidates, while Kosovo has officially submitted a membership application in December 2022.
(Zoran Radosavljević | EURACTIV.com)