Warsaw, 29 November 2016
The annual meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Visegrad Group (V4) and the Western Balkans took place in Warsaw on November 29, 2016, under the Republic of Poland Presidency of the V4. The meeting was also attended by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission Federica Mogherini and by Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Romania, and Slovenia.
The V4 Ministers reiterated their continued interest in and support for the Western Balkan countries on their EU path. The EU enlargement policy provides an invaluable tool for achieving security, stability, and prosperity in the Western Balkans.
In the contest of V4-WB6 cooperation, the Warsaw Declaration underlines:
“The project of establishing the Western Balkans Fund based on the model of the International Visegrad Fund is progressing steadily and the V4 welcomed the completion of the ratification processes in four WB6 countries. The V4 ministers reaffirmed the commitment to continue providing the technical assistance for the start of operation of the WBF. The V4 also vowed to
continue exploring ways to further expand the cooperation between the two regional groupings. In this regard, the V4 committed to working closely with the European Commission on designing new forms of cooperation between the V4 and WB6 that would contribute to smoother integration of the Western Balkan countries into the EU”.
