Serbia's EU integration might help heal wounds in Western Balkans, says Foreign Minister

Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar met his Serbian counterpart Marko Djuric on the side-lines of meeting of the 'Friends of the Western Balkans' informal grouping in Austria on Friday.

Slovakia has been actively engaged in the Western Balkans and is a long-term supporter of individual countries' EU integration efforts, said the ministry. "From this viewpoint, Serbia is "a very important country and its integration into the EU can significantly help to heal the wounds that are relatively strong in this region", stated Blanar. He voiced Slovakia's support for Serbia in its EU accession talks with the aim of achieving progress by opening another evaluation framework for the field of competitiveness.

The Friends of Western Balkans grouping, made up of Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia, was formed last year with an aim of reviving and speeding up the accession process.

Source: TASR