Struga, 15 June 2023 (MIA) – All Balkan countries should be treated equally by the EU. This is the only way that will help us integrate within the EU. This is the most important thing for North Macedonia, and all other Balkan countries, because we can’t only work on survival, we have to create progress through reforms and by adapting to European programs, said Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi on Thursday at the Prespa Forum Dialogue in Struga.

Bekteshi, as one of the panelists at the session “Paving the Way to Prosperity: EcoFin Strategies for Western Balkans Growth” stressed that when it comes to progress, all countries of the region need European support. 

“We can’t have progress without EU support. We reached a point at which we started to consider the benefits of emigration. The process of migration cannot be avoided, it has to be approached strategically, to have policies with which we will respond appropriately. We must provide investments and a lot of knowledge. Regarding the EU’s economy, the standard of living, wages and social services, for the citizens it is very important to have equality and access to all opportunities,” said Bekteshi.

Earlier at the panel, the Governor of the National Bank, Anita Angelovska-Bezhoska, also touched upon emigration, noting that it is one of the key challenges faced by the Western Balkan countries. 

“One in five people are leaving, and it’s even more worrying that one third of respondents expressed a desire to move abroad. There are assessments that in the past decade, if it wasn’t for emigration, the growth of the Western Balkan countries would be at two to three percent,” underlined Angelovska-Bezhoska.

The other panelists at the session were the Montenegrin Minister of Finance Aleksandar Damjanović, as well as Ivana Živković from the UNDP.

Photo: Printscreen