Vucic About Ohrid Agreement: The Balkans haven't Come Up with a Better Idea over Past 30 Years

Vucic,Zaev,Rama (Beta/North Macedonia Government)

In a comment on a so-called "mini-Schengen" agreement with the prime ministers of North Macedonia and Albania, Zoran Zaev and Edi Rama, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that "we haven't come up with a better idea for the Balkans over the past 30 years."

The president said he was very proud of the agreement, explaining that it would open the door to "enormous" changes, which, as he put it, "many do not understand at this point."

"There isn't a single thing in all this that might bother anyone. These are major changes, and I know they are not very popular in my country, but I'm not anxious about it. There aren't any new Yugoslavias here, just a better life for everyone. Someone may destroy this for us, but this is the future," Vucic said in Ohrid.

When asked if he would accept an alternative to Serbia's full membership of the European Union (EU), the president said that Serbia and the other states of the region had already embarked on the path to Europe, but that not everything depended on them.

Prime Minister Zaev said in Ohrid that the ultimate goal of a "mini-Schengen" agreement was mutual recognition of all documents, including university degrees, documents issued by food agencies, etc.

His Albanian counterpart said that there's nothing new about the "mini-Schengen" initiative, and that it only paved the way to a free flow of people, goods, services and capital across the Western Balkans, suggesting that all the states of the region should be involved.