New roads would connect highways in five states into the Balkan ring, specifies interlocutor of Danas

Kosovo is interested in the construction of the Adriatic-Ionian highway because it connects the recently completed Tirana - Pristina road with the new road corridor. It's good for Kosovo, but is also good for its neighbours, says Petrit Selimi to Danas, Deputy Head of the Kosovo diplomacy, commenting on the proposal of the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama to engage Kosovo and FYROM in the aforementioned regional strategy through accelerated procedure.

Selimi says that the "Kosovo and Serbia agreed to link Nis and Pristina with traffic route", which will be funded within the "Berlin Process".

- Adriatic-Ionian roads will connect the existing highways in five states into the Balkan ring and you could get from Nis to Budva for five hours by car instead of traveling nine hours, as is the case now, across the highway Pristina - Tirana, which was completed and named "Ibrahim Rugova" - specifies interlocutor of Danas.

Albania's prime minister at a recent meeting in the Italian city of Pescara said that macro-regional strategies should follow the national strategy. "To seek the solution outside of Europe would be like search for solutions outside of history ... I hope that Kosovo and FYROM would be included in the regional strategy by an expedited procedure, which would make this co-operation complete. The macro-regional strategy is a new way that would strengthen relations among neighbours, but also a Peace strategy through an economic and social cooperation," said Rama.

Adriatic-Ionian Initiative (AII) brings together eight countries in the region, of which four members of the European Union (Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia) and four Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro). Serbia participates in the work of the initiative since 2000, when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was admitted to full membership. After the dissolution of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, Serbia has continued membership.

The highest body of the AII is Adriatic-Ionian Council comprising the Foreign Ministers of the Member States and which is held once a year. Committee of Senior Officials coordinates the activities of the Initiative and prepare the meetings of the Council of Ministers. Decisions are made by consensus.

The European Commission in June 2014 presented a strategy intended for the development of the Adriatic-Ionian region. The backbone of this plan is to strengthen the economy and social development, and faster integration of the Western Balkans into the EU.

Domains of cooperation

The principal activities of the AII are taking place in four main areas. The first segment is tourism, culture and inter-university cooperation, the second is transport and maritime cooperation, the third is environmental protection and fire protection, while the fourth is aimed to establishing cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises.