Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani met Friday with the EU ambassadors of the C5 informal group, comprised of central European countries – Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
FM Osmani and Ambassadors Georg Woutsas (Austria), Milan Predan (Slovenia), Miroslav Toman (Czech Republic), Henrik Markus (Slovakia) and Laszlo Dux (Hungary) discussed EU developments, the coming council of ministers of foreign and European affairs that will focus on the Western Balkans’ European perspective and serve as preparation for the meetings in June. Moreover, they tackled the immunization process and the steps undertaken for free cross-border travel, especially during the summer, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release.
Interlocutors agreed that the regional formats of closer cooperation offer opportunities for enhanced coordination, especially in managing common challenges such as the current pandemic. Countries of Central Europe are in the immediate neighborhood of the Western Balkans and are closely linked, especially from an economic standpoint. Therefore, there is a need to discuss the creation of joint measures and mechanisms supported by the EU, which will facilitate the overcoming of challenges.
The latest such example of coordinated cooperation is the mechanism for vaccine delivery, coordinated by Austria, ensuring 651,000 vaccines for the region, of which 119,000 for North Macedonia, reads the press release.
