BERLIN PROCESS AND THE OPEN BALKANS: EFFECTIVENESS, COMPLEMENTARITY AND COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES IN THE PROCESS OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION IN THE WESTERN BALKANS
BERLIN PROCESS AND THE OPEN BALKANS: EFFECTIVENESS, COMPLEMENTARITY AND COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES IN THE PROCESS OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

Summary/Abstract: The Berlin Process was established in 2014 as an initiative of several member states of the European Union under German leadership to engage with six partners from the Western Balkans. The main goal is regional cooperation within the framework that should contribute to the acceleration of European integration in the Western Balkans, but also to the creation of a common regional market. The Open Balkans is an initiative launched by the leaders of Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia in 2019. The main goal is to create a single market in the Western Balkans based on the principles of the EU market and the free movement of goods, people, capital and services. Paper’s aim is to analyse the effectiveness of one and the other initiative, their complementarity and comparative advantages of one over the other and vice versa. Exclusively for the purpose of this, we have conducted a survey, in order to better understood the current position and the future of the two initiatives. The results show that Open Balkans initiative enjoys greater trust among respondents of the survey. We conclude that is because of faster implementation of the reached agreements and directly visible results for the economic sector and citizens in the region.

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