Grabar-Kitarovic expressed concern about current trends in the integration process in Southeastern European countries, adding that the enlargement fatigue could be noticed both in the EU and in the membership aspirants, "where worrying trends can be observed in security, namely security threats, delays in the reform processes in certain areas and lack of effort to tackle unresolved bilateral issues."
She said that regional leaders would continue working together and that this was the moment when the EU should also send out strong messages to Southeastern Europe that "appropriate reforms, based on an individual approach to EU membership, will be rewarded with appropriate formal steps" on each country's EU path.
"But the countries themselves must also send out strong messages to the EU and others that they are undertaking concrete steps and concrete reforms," Grabar-Kitarovic said.
Grabar-Kitarovic said that the next Brdo-Brijuni Process summit would be held in Croatia, mostly likely in October, to discuss specific projects of vital importance for establishing closer ties among the countries of Southeastern Europe, with special emphasis on ensuring conditions for education and employment for young people in the region to reduce emigration.
The main purpose of this process is a message that the great idea of European integration will not be completed until the Western Balkan countries become full members of the European Union, which is the ultimate goal. Although that is not simple, I am sure that we will achieve that goal, Austrian President Heinz Fischer, who attended the summit as a guest, told the press.
Fischer announced a Western Balkan summit for August 27 in Vienna, which would be attended by French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the prime ministers and ministers of foreign and economic affairs from the region.
Preparations for that meeting are under way and we hope that it will produce not just conclusions but also concrete things. One of them is an agreement on the border between Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, because it has been agreed that it should be signed at the Vienna summit, which would be an important message that problems in this region are not only discussed but also resolved, Fischer said.
Speaking of the complex situation in Macedonia, Fischer said that steps should be taken in the right direction, such as the holding of transparent elections next year, which should ensure that election results are accepted by all parties.
The summit's host, Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic, said that the summit accepted an "excellent" initiative put forward by Grabar-Kitarovic and Slovenian President Borut Pahor to address a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk proposing a conference on Southeastern European countries, "where all activities in the integration process would be analysed to ensure the best effects of that process on the countries covered by it."
Vujanovic said that the Budva summit had also accepted the initiative by Grabar-Kitarovic and Pahor that the two of them visit Macedonia on behalf of the Brdo-Brijuni Process to make their contribution to efforts to defuse and stabilise the situation in that country and to the process of its integration into the EU and NATO.
Pahor said that the main message of the entire Brdo-Brijuni Process was that the European path was the only path for the successful future of the Western Balkans. "I think that we, participants in the Brdo-Brijuni Process, have made huge progress over the last two years by establishing dialogue, building mutual trust and promoting the process of reconciliation in the region, and we should continue this. However, it is at the same time both the responsibility and privilege of the Union to help us, to understand that it is necessary for the Union to come here and call upon all the countries in the Western Balkans to continue reforms, to become strongly politically involved in these processes and to push forward the enlargement process much more strongly than it does now," he said.
The summit, which also involved the presidents of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia, ended with the adoption of conclusions in which the EU aspirants were urged to implement the necessary reforms.
The conclusions also underscored the need to improve the economic situation in the region and ensure better transport and energy connections, and better education and employment conditions for young people. The countries were called upon to continue meeting their commitments in the integration process.
The Croatian President's Office confirmed that Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov was coming to Croatia for a state visit on July 6-7.