Brnabic at Central European Initiative summit in Rome

The Summit of the Central European Initiative (CEI) started today in Rome with Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic among the participating leaders of member-states.

Ahead of the start of the meeting, the host, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, welcomed Brnabic and representatives of CEI member-states-

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The summit's participants include prime ministers of Albania Edi Rama, Croatia Andrej Plenkovic, Montenegro Dusan Markovic and North Macedonia Zoran Zaev, as well as Slovenian Foreign Minister Miro Cerar, among others.

They will discuss the importance of European integration, economic cooperation and business opportunities in the region.

During her stay in Rome, the Serbian prime minister will address the summit's participants in a plenary meeting and will also told talks with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

On the sidelines of the summit, the Serbian prime minister will meet with Moldovan Prime Minister Ion Chicu and new European Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi.

The Central European Initiative this year marks the 30th anniversary since this format of cooperation has been established - created in 1989 and stemming from "cooperation between four countries" - Italy, Austria, Yugoslavia, and Hungary.

Today's summit also marks the final phase of this year's Italian CEI presidency.

The initiative today has 17 members - Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Italy, Hungary, North Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Ukraine, and Montenegro. In 2018, Austria decided to withdraw from membership.

CEI's strategic goal is "regional cooperation for European integration" - while one of the main priorities of the organization is cooperation with the EU, with the aim of strengthening the European integration process of the whole region.

The initiative operates under a rotating one-year presidency. Serbia was CEI's chair in 2011.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)