The Secretary-General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), Majlinda Bregu, told the European Western Balkans portal on Saturday that the Western Balkans cannot lose another decade due to new instabilities.

“The time is ticking and the Western Balkans cannot lose another decade marked with new potential instabilities. It’s dangerous. If skilled and educated young people do not see a European perspective at home, they will take on existing opportunities to migrate and seek better living conditions in the EU, by joining EU individually. Transatlantic partnership & regional ownership are always welcome to keep the region sailing west,” she said

Speaking about the regional initiative “Green Corridors,” which enabled the unhindered flow of goods in the most critical phase of the coronavirus pandemic and which was coordinated by the RCC, Majlinda Bregu assessed that “Green Corridors” can serve as an example of successful regional cooperation.

As one of the biggest obstacles to this initiative, she pointed out the 14 border crossings amongst the Western Balkan states and 18 with the EU member states. “At one point it took more than 20 hours to cross a border, complete customs procedures, sanitization and health check of the driver,” she said. “On top of being an extremely time-consuming process that delays and even frequently breaks the supply chains, it is also a costly one – it is calculated that every single minute of waiting time costs nearly 2 € per truck or 26 million hours spent at our internal borders. “

She noted that “Green Corridors” not only enabled a more even border crossing and enabled the goods to arrive at their destination on time, but also save serious money, time and stress.

“The better the regional cooperation, the stronger we are. Together we can survive as a market and be more trustful and interesting for foreign investors, which means more economic growth and job creation.