News: Informal EU-WB meeting in Athens. Rama was absent due to tensions between Athens and Tirana

The informal meeting, hosted by the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was held in Athens between the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, the leaders of the candidate countries Bosnia-HerzegovinaEregovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Moldova, Ukraine, together with the leaders of Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia. the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, was present to discuss the country’s progress in the path of European integration.

The meeting focused on the accession path of the candidate countries and the EU enlargement package planned for October.

The Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, was absent due to the recent tensions between Athens and Tirana following following the pre-trial detention of Fredi Beleri, ethnic Greek mayor of the Albanian city of Himarë, accused of buying and selling votes.

Photo credits: kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons