TIRANA – A controversy arose today at the Berlin Process summit in the capital of Albania when the Prime Minister of Serbia Ana Brnabić did not show up for a family photo with other leaders of the region and the EU. Brnabić later stated that she was only late to the shooting, denying the claims that she refused to take the photo.
The 10th Berlin Process summit, the first one in the region of the Western Balkans, is taking place in Tirana today. Regional governments are represented on the prime-ministerial level, and the topics of the meeting include the EU growth plan for the region, as well as the signing of the agreement on mutual recognition of professional qualifications.
The event was not without controversy, though. The family photos released by the European Council did not include Prime Minister of Serbia Ana Brnabić, who arrived only later, triggering speculations about the reasons behind it.
Some interpreted that Brnabić did not want to take a photo due to the presence of the flag of Kosovo, which was not an issue during the previous iterations of the summit. Multiple media outlets noted the absence of the Prime Minister of Serbia.
#Serbian PM, Ana Brnabic was absent from the joint 📸 with #EU and #Balkan leaders, taken today at the #BerlinProcess summit in #Tirana.
Leaders stood in front of national flags, including #Kosovo’s, with which 🇷🇸 recently exchanged barbs over the armed incident in the north 🇽🇰 pic.twitter.com/ULf17TocWe
— Balkan Insight (@BalkanInsight) October 16, 2023
The Government of Serbia, however, denied that the Prime Minister refused to take a photo and released the one that shows her attendance.
During a press conference held several hours later, Brnabić confirmed that she was late to the photo, but insisted that there were no underlying motives, stating that she did not know exactly “when the photographers were going to press their camera buttons”.
She added that those who are spreading these stories want to damage Serbia.
In the press release, the Government of Serbia stated it does not lead the policy of isolation, but rather the one of cooperation and resolving open issues through dialogue.
Neither the press conference nor the press release provided specific details explaining her late arrival.