Distinguished Mr. President Nishani,
Distinguished Mr. President Vujanovic,
Distinguished Madam President Jahjaga,

I would like to thank our esteemed host, President Nishani for the extended hospitality. For five years we have been investing in this Forum. We have met in Vlora, Prizren, Ohrid and Budva. Organizing this, fifth in a row, regional presidential summit in Durres, we are opening a new cycle of such meetings. Meetings aimed at enhanced bilateral and regional cooperation and European future for our citizens.

The topic offered by our hosts is a contemporary and very important one. Approaches to practically use opportunities for the purpose of a more effective regional cooperation.

The opportunities for a more effective cooperation depend on the ambience, which is complicated and rapidly changing. Many of our beliefs will quickly become outdated because reality is more complex than all the theories that try to explain it.

Our region is not immune to the changes that happen in the world. We are exposed to the European economic and financial crisis impact. We feel the consequences of the volatile Middle East. At regional level, there is slowdown in investment. Although armed conflicts are over, consequences are still visible. Citizens of our countries had greater expectations from the freedom, democracy and free market. In other words, situation in the region is not as we wish. This is mostly due to our disunity as a region and intolerance created in the 20th century.

We have long expected the countries from the region which have earlier joined the Union to be the main drivers and advocates for the welfare of the region. We have expected the member-states of the region to contribute to the Europeanization of the Balkans. Instead, we are witnessing Balkanization of the European policies towards the region. This is reflected in the good neighborly relations, economy and European integration of the region.

Esteemed Excellencies,

Good neighborly relations, which are, indeed, a two-way street, most depend on us. Although we have managed to overcome many prejudices of the past, however, our region is not yet immune to old challenges.

Four months ago, Balkan prejudices came to the surface again. There was a real danger the region to be blocked internally, the cooperation to stop and the dialogue to cease. Therefore, I decided to cancel the Summit of SEECP and the Regional Forum on the Dialogue among Civilizations. The alarm was activated and the result was immediate. We commend the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, but we are waiting for its implementation. We are waiting for final stabilization of the situation in the region.

As presidents, we must create environment for successful cooperation. We must be over the prejudices. We can achieve all this only through cooperation on concrete projects, such as for a more active utilization of pre-accession and accession funds of the Union, as well as cooperation in the field of environmental protection. There is no time for declarativeness. Those who want to look at the past can read a book or visit a museum. We must not allow, however, the future of our children to be stolen by the past.

Dear Friends,

The desire for good neighborliness was and remains our most powerful tool for creating economically developed region as part of the European family.

We are creating conditions to commit ourselves to what is most important for our citizens: progress and prosperity. The road to our goal leads through economic and cross-border cooperation, infrastructure and energy connectivity, prevention and assistance in natural disasters, tourism and joint application for European funds.

Yet, there are challenges. While we are successfully running the marathon of building, developing and maintaining good political relations, we are lagging behind in the race for economic cooperation. Let us not forget that these two spheres are complementary, as two sides of the same coin.

Currently, economic cooperation does not correspond to the level of political cooperation. It is similar as to the usage of outdated dial-up technology for Internet connection when there are already installed fiber cables. We know how short the patience of younger generations is when it comes to Internet. The patience of citizens, industries, companies, passengers is getting shorter. It is necessary to put political cooperation into function of economic cooperation.

It is said that the one who has something will be aided to have more, and the one who has nothing will lose what he has. If we use the positive political environment for greater economic cooperation, we will then ensure welfare for our citizens. If, however, we do not use the achieved level of political relations, then, even our regional cooperation will lose its legitimacy.

For five years we have been investing in this Forum. We have been building trust, deepening the established friendship and encouraging our governments to follow our example. Time has come to use this investment for the sake of our citizens, our state, our region.

Esteemed Excellencies,

The region needs new infrastructure, since the existing one is holding us hostage to the old hegemonies.

The one who changes the geography changes the future, too. Connecting the Adriatic-Ionian Highway with Corridor 8 means essential change of the geography and the future of our region. Connecting these two important roads creates conditions for connecting the divided, opening the closed, accelerating the slow and developing the underdeveloped.

Recently, I have had talks with President Josipovic. He plans to continue the Brdo Process in April 2014 in Zagreb, in the presence of the highest representative of a founding member of the Union. Time is so short. Therefore, I appeal to have a harmonized approach and to insist this topic to be high on the agenda of the Brdo Process. To insist assistance to be sought from the Union and to make it a European corridor, a corridor financially supported by the Union.

The importance of this corridor is not only economic, but also geo-political, since it becomes alternative to Corridor 10. This question should be in the focus of our quadrilateral cooperation.

The whole Balkan infrastructure should be connected with the European. Not in vain, the road that leads to nowhere is called dead end. There are so many dead ends in the Balkans. Only by infrastructural connecting with European corridors, dead ends will disappear in the Balkans.

Respected Colleagues,

Everything we do aims at bringing our societies, administrations, economies in line with the European standards, criteria and principles. The corridors we want to connect lead to Europe. The views of our citizens are towards Europe.

We are facing challenges on that road, too. Many things have changed in the Balkans, but Balkan mentality is most slowly changing. There are still blockades to the regional future and non-recognition of regional reality. The policy of blockades erodes stability, development and prosperity of our region as acid damages metal. Someone persistently pours acid on the European and Euro-Atlantic future of the region. This should stop.

We expect our southern neighbor to apply a policy of cooperation and approximation, which will contribute to the implementation of the Agenda 2014. We expect our neighbor to finally start behaving in a European manner towards the neighbors and the region. We expect it starts to apply a policy of cooperation. We can not believe in the obsolete declarativeness. Enough of words. I am not sure if anybody trusts their words. Without work, their words are just empty words, at least for us.

Today, I want to send a message to the European Union. European integration is what is moving and bringing closer our countries. Integration inspires and motivates us to work together. The Union must find a way to maintain the credibility of the enlargement policy. As I said in Brdo, what we least want to see is bankruptcy of the European idea.

Dear Friends,

Geography has made us neighbors; economy can make us partners, and cooperation - members of the same European and Euro-Atlantic family.

May we start this new cycle of our regional cooperation by collecting the fruits of our previous meetings. Let us not stop here. May we expand it with other colleagues from the region. I wish to see, in the second cycle, as the same table with us Presidents Nikolic and Papoulias. It is high time we learn to drive a car in the Balkans, looking forward, through the windscreen, to the future, not only looking back, through the rear-view mirror, to the past. Only then we will justify the expectations of our citizens.

Thank you.