The European Union (EU) is in deep crisis with its promises to the Western Balkans and until it decides what to do with the region, the Western Balkans should focus on reforms and linkage, Majlinda Bregu, the Secretary-General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), said in Albania on Wednesday, the Beta news agency reported.

 She added the focus also shroud be on the brain drain, people in the region should have free movement with IDs and the work on the digital platform should continue.

“Europe is in deep crisis in establishing its philosophy and obligations toward the region. I don’t know what’s next, but while the EU isn’t ready to tell us what is its plan for our region, it would be smart to make better links among ourselves through the regional cooperation and serious local reforms, aware that the EU membership is a programme of transition and not an obsession with dates or methodologies,” Bregu told the Tirana Connectivity Forum.

The Forum’s meeting this year is dedicated to the regional cooperation in energy, to the institutional challenges in the area of transport and social links, the Western Balkans’ road to the EU, geopolitics and reforms.

Bregu said the region “needs additional support in the implementation of the necessary reforms to catch up with the EU’s pace.”

“The EU might reconsider its suggestion and include the region into the mechanism of its structural funds. They took some time, until May 2020, to work on a new approach to the enlargement. But to avoid further ‘geopolitical damage’ to the region this decision should be brought having in mind all six economies of the Western Balkans,” Bregu told the Forum.