The 10th Berlin Process Summit will be held in Berlin on Monday, bringing together representatives of Western Balkan and EU countries, including Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, and focusing on the further deepening of regional cooperation.

Apart from the heads of state and government of six Western Balkan countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia – also attending are EU member countries involved in the process, including Croatia, which has been involved from the very beginning.

The summit will focus on regional cooperation, a common regional market and the green agenda for the Western Balkans.

A joint declaration on a new action plan for a common regional market and an agreement enhancing access to institutions of higher education in the region will be signed at the meeting.

The results of the summit will be presented at a joint news conference by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who will also attend the summit on behalf of the EU.

Before the summit, the Croatian prime minister will visit Siemens plants in Berlin, and in the afternoon he will hold a lecture at the Bertelsmann Foundation on the topic of challenges and opportunities for the EU.

The Berlin Process was launched in 2014 by then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the primary goal of the format from the very beginning has been to enable Western Balkan countries to draw closer to the EU, so as to deliver on the promise made at the EU summit in Salonika in 2003, when those countries were promised EU membership.

In recent years the Berlin Process has gained importance due to the growing influence of powers like Russia, China and Turkey in the region, which the EU wants to prevent.

Some of the biggest achievements of the Berlin Process are the signing of an agreement on regional economic cooperation, on visa cancellation and on the mutual recognition of diplomas.