German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after Monday's Berlin Process conference on the Western Balkans that much had been achieved in that southeastern European region, however, a lot of work was still to be done.

“For many Western Balkan countries, the pace of their accession to the European Union is too slow. The European Union has expressed objections to the the pace of their reforms many times, and sometimes those objections have been perceived by the aspirants as unfair,” the chancellor said after the virtual Western Balkans conference.

Merkel also cited geostrategic interests important  for the intensified engagement of the EU in the Western Balkans.

Commenting on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, she assessed that the current state of affairs in that country was not satisfactory.

We need a new impulse for the election legislation and I hope that (the new international high representative) Christian Schmidt will be given support for his work, she added.

Merkel said that three million coronavirus vaccine doses would be sent by Germany to the region as part of the Covax programme.