David SASSOLI, EP President and Olivér VÁRHELYI, Member of the EC in charge of neighbourhood and enlargement open the High-Level Roundtable on the European Integration Process of the Western Balkans, in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Brussels

speech

SASSOLI, David Maria (S&D, IT, S&D, IT)

Enlargement to the Western Balkans countries (T)

VÁRHELYI, Olivér (HU, EC)

High-Level Roundtable on the European Integration Process of the Western Balkans: extracts from the opening speech

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/5248933/I181590Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

Arrival of EP President David SASSOLI at the meeting

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, I have stated from the beginning that the Western Balkans are a priority for me based on the mandate, that I naturally receive from the European Parliament.You will know that my first visi outside the European Union it was to Northern Macedonia.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, Today I was supposed to be in Tirana too show the Albanian people my support for the opening of negotiations with the European Union. But I had to give up because of the earthquake that struck Albania. On the contrary, I want to express once again our solidarity, my own in particular, but also that of all the European parliamentarians.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), David SASSOLI, EP President, For the European Parliament, this is a road that must begin early, and we will make every effort so that the accession process goes ahead and ends brilliantly.

SOUNDBITE (English), Fabio Massimo CASTALDO (NI, IT), First of all, I'm delighted to welcome our colleagues from the parliaments of Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, northern Macedonia and Serbia. Unfortunately, the members of the Kosovar parliament, our parliament are not cannot be present today because, as you know, the electoral process is still ongoing in Kosovo and members of the parliament have not yet been sworn in.

SOUNDBITE (English), Oliv&#233;r V&#193;RHELYI, Commissioner-designate, Neighbourhood and Enlargement, We need to sustain and accelerate reform progress for each individual country. The focus must be on the real impact of the reforms on the ground. The best measure of progress will be the pace of economic development, increased prosperity and quality of life, as well as freedom for people in our partners in the region.

SOUNDBITE (English), Oliv&eacute;r V&Aacute;RHELYI, Commissioner-designate, Neighbourhood and Enlargement, I also want the process to be more dynamic and not just focussed on opening and closing the negotiating chapters. We need to focus on identifying opportunities for closer and earlier integration in areas of joint interests, even before accession. For example, the Western Balkans should be closely assisted associated with the Green Deal or our digital agenda and our trans-European networks in transport and energy. This will help drive growth and create jobs.

SOUNDBITE (English), Oliv&eacute;r V&Aacute;RHELYI, Commissioner-designate, Neighbourhood and Enlargement, I guess all of us were very disappointed with the recent lack of consensus in the European Council in October to open membership negotiations with with Albania and North Macedonia. Nevertheless, our commitment to their EU perspective remains unchanged.