The US Ambassador to Kosovo, Jeff Hovenier, among other things, spoke about the Open Balkans, which he said was Kosovo's decision on which regional initiatives to participate in and which not.

"I mean, we have said it openly, Gabe is the special envoy for the region, the special representative for the region and the deputy assistant secretary for the Western Balkans, and when he announces the policy priorities for the Western Balkans, the objectives, he speaks on behalf of the government. To the United States, we support the Open Balkans initiative, by saying this we understand that Kosovo has the right to make its sovereign decisions on which regional initiatives it will participate in and which it will not, so it is a sovereign decision for the Government of Kosovo ", said Hovenier.

The ambassador added that the United States supports regional initiatives, which bring together the countries of the Western Balkans, cooperation and bring them closer to the European market.

Initiatives, he said, that reduce, facilitate the free flow of goods, services, people, strengthen the rule of law and we support it.

"So we support the Berlin Process, we support CEFTA, we support the Common Regional Market and we support the Open Balkans."

According to him, they will support the Open Balkans initiative, to the point that certain conditions are met or continued.

"One of these conditions that Gabe has spoken very openly about is that it is free and equally accessible to all Western Balkan countries, ie without footnotes, without special conditions, so in this case Kosovo would be treated like any other country. in this initiative.

The other is that the principles are in line with the requirements for membership in the European Union, in fact the work that has been done on the freedom of movement of people, goods, services, capital and issues of the rule of law is in line with the criteria of "As long as these conditions are met, we support the European Union," said Ambassador Hovenier at the Rubicon.