Vienna based daily Der Standard argues that the goal of the upcoming regional conference in Berlin on the Western Balkans is to "bury" a plan on the exchange of territory, the portal B92 reports.

"The Chancellor intends to suggest that North of Kosovo receive a special status - this is also based and in the idea of the Community of Serbian Municipalities, which formation was agreed by the Brussels Agreement, but it has not been applied so far," reported Standard.

Op-ed by Florian Bieber, professor at the University of Graz and coordinator of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG). Bieber will be a speaker on the event “Beyond Berlin: What Does the Next Decade Hold for the Western Balkans?”, organized by Chatham House, European Fund for the Balkans and DG Near in London on 10 July.

See more at: https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2018/07/10/time-ditch-berlin-process/

Aleksandar Vucic has told Angela Merkel he believes the Regional Economic Zone and the Nis-Pristina highway is of great importance to the Western Balkans.

The Serbian president Vucic asked the German chancellor Merkel to use her reputation and authority to speed up the realization of these two projects, Tanjug reported.

"The 'Berlin Process' is very helpful. I am extremely grateful to German Chancellor Angela Merkel because she has created it. Otherwise nothing would have moved. Now some things are progressing and it depends much on the region for the things to move forward," says the former Vice-Chancellor of Austria, Erhard Busek.

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini in an interview to the European Western Balkans Portal spoke about the topics such as “Berlin Process,” new phase in a dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Bosnia and Hercegovina application for the EU membership and important reforms in the Western Balkans.