BELGRADE – There has been progress in cooperation among the countries of the Western Balkans over the recent years, but it still needs improvement, European Parliament Vice-President Ulrike Lunacek said in Belgrade Friday.
In a statement for Tanjug on the sidelines of the Civil Society Forum Belgrade, Lunacek said that the region should seek to cooperate closer on their own and not always seek to connect via Brussels, or via Berlin, or via Berlin, or via Paris for that matter.
She said it was important to overcome the recent rise of nationalist and ethnically defined politics in some parts of the region, “and not only in the region, but also in Europe,” as “the European future is one where we overcome borders, the territorial ones, but also the ones in our heads and our hearts.”
Stressing the importance of civil society, Lunacek said the civil society, for her, “is where citizens get together and learn how to formulate their demands, also where critical thinking is necessary, that as a citizen, you learn how to deal with authorities in a way that you also say what you want, and you formulate it and you become constructive in demanding things and having governments move and doing things for the better.”