"The Balkans represent both an opportunity and a necessity for Italy. They are strategic for a series of reasons, such as migration, but the latter is not the main one. It is an area that borders our country and we have pushed with other countries in order to grant Bosnia Herzegovina the status of EU candidate. We are in favour of accelerating the accession times of all the other Balkan countries which want to join EU". This was said by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani at the opening the XV Conference of Ambassadors of Italy in the world at “Farnesina”, the seat of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome.
"We don’t want this region to become a zone of influence for non-European countries that have interests which are not aligned with ours. Together with the rest of the EU, we want it to be an area of stability, progress, growth and opportunities for our enterprises", the Minister added, reminding that Italy will organize two Business forums in Pristina and Belgrade, and a Conference on the Balkans in January in Trieste.
