UK’s May: Stable Western Balkans important for stable Europe

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The host to the EU – Western Balkans Summit, British Prime Minister Teresa May, told reporters in London on Tuesday that the stable, safe and prosperous region meant safe and stable Europe.

She added that was the reason for all included in the Berlin Process to help and support the Western Balkans.

May said that her country's decision to leave the EU did not mean that London would lose its role in the region, adding that the increased financial aid to the regional nations proved that.

At the joint news conference, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the aim of the Berlin Process initiated in 2014, 100 years after the First World War, was to promote political cooperation and economic perspective of the Western Balkans.

So far, the meetings within the Berlin Process were held in the German capital in 2014, in Vienna in 2015, in Paris the next year, in Rome in 2017.

“Every country that hosted the summit gave the process a new dimension,” Merkel said, adding that the main issues were infrastructural projects and Regional Conference for Youth.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Jakub Morawieck also took part at the media conference saying that Europe faced the migrant crisis and that it was essential to protect the European’s external borders.

Poland will host the next Berlin Process summit, and Morawieck said Warsaw intended to share its experience in accession process with the EU with “our Balkan friends.”

“The problems we discussed today are similar to ones we had in the 1990s,” he added.

You can watch Teresa May’s speech at the news conference here: