Tony Blair Says Open Balkan Initiative Is Extremely Important  

North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in Skopje on Aug. 24, with the former British premier, Tony Blair (BETAPHOTO/VLADA SEVERNE MAKEDONIJE/DS)

In a meeting with North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in Skopje on Aug. 24, the former British premier, Tony Blair, said that the Open Balkan initiative was extremely important and that it would step up the EU path to its three member countries.

According to a release from the Skopje government, Blair insisted that the goals of the project for connecting the Western Balkan region into a single market “will bring along much benefit to the citizens of North Macedonia, Albania and Serbia at many levels, and will be an accelerator of the EU membership process for these countries.”

Blair further said that the Open Balkan Initiative was opposed to nationalist agendas and that the three member countries were the leaders in clearly showing to the EU that they were committed to their EU future. Blair informed Zaev that he was visiting Skopje on behalf of his Institute for Global Change, which focused on providing support to technological development of the countries with the ambition to become competitive and keep up with technologically developed countries.