The integration of the six countries of the Western Balkans is a priority for Germany, declared the Senior Advisor of the Special Representative of the German Government for the countries of the Western Balkans, Valeska Esch, at the third edition of the Kosovo Summit for Peace and Democracy that is being held in Pristina.

She said that the Berlin Process is essential for supporting the region on its way to integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures.

"For us, the integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union is even more important, and for those who want to join NATO... It is an issue that has enough bipartisan consensus among almost all political parties in the German Bundestag. So, we can you are sure that a future German government will also maintain a focus on the region. Germany continues to be among the largest donors and investors in the entire region. And I would like to briefly mention the Berlin Process, which is one the forms that this government has revived, or revitalized and we consider key in supporting the region on its way to the European Union," she said.

At the panel discussion on the EU's focus on the Balkans, independent analyst Agon Maliqi said that there is a new momentum for EU expansion after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine.

"Yes, there is a new momentum for expansion that comes after the war in Ukraine. But I really feel that it has already started to fade. So, because this is a window that opens and then it can fade very easily. I'm afraid that the driving factors and attractive, both the factors from the EU and the push factors from the region are weakening. The main problem that the ambassador mentioned the train, when he said that when the train comes, you have to be ready to jump... We are re-starting, we are re-entering in a new momentum from a much worse position. Or by the standards of democracy, take the case of Serbia, so who would want to accept a country with that degree of autocracy another Victor Orban type regime in the EU. Or in the case of Kosovo, the non-recognising states, we have no chance to take them in. Because of this, and all these are issues that the EU enlargement process had to solve over the last decade," he said.

Jelena Dzankic from the Robert Schuman Center, European University Institute in Florence, Italy, said that a new momentum has been created for EU enlargement.

"This is a new moment is a kind of opportunity for the region and it is not for the sake of the Western Balkans. We all know why the enlargement has been revived. It has been revived as a means to secure Europe, not necessarily for the sake of the region itself Now, when we think about this, when we think about the region in a more global perspective, you can see some dynamics, now the lack of proper focus or the focus that the region expects from the Euro-Atlantic friends is something that has opened a kind of vacuum, so this lack of interest, lack of commitment as expected has enabled the creation of dependencies on Russia and China, especially economic ones, and has not allowed the democratic society in these countries to flourish. What happens when you have the situation on the ground combined with the lack of interest from The EU, you obviously have the creation of bastions of local power, which further destabilize the region," she said. /E.Zeqiri/