Verklaring van het voorzitterschap over de west-balkanlanden (en)

The Presidency warmly welcomes today's presentation of the Communication on the Western Balkans in which the Commission takes stock of the progress made and proposes a number of concrete measures that would further deepen the relations between the EU and the countries from the region and encourage the necessary reforms. The document points the way forward for following up on the Thessaloniki agenda and the Salzburg Communication, in line with the Commission's November 2007 enlargement strategy paper.

The Communication sets out new initiatives for promoting people-to-people contacts, covering areas such as visa liberalisation and scholarships, for further developing civil society and for enhancing the region's economic and social development, including cross-border cooperation; furthermore, the document contains an analysis of the situation of each partner with regard to its EU integration path.