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Thank you Mr President, and good afternoon,

It is very good to be here among friends and partners. And indeed, Montenegro is the most advanced country what the accession process is concerned.

Today, the Commission is proposing to suspend certain articles of the EU's Visa Facilitation Agreement with the Republic of Belarus.

I come as a friend and as a partner. And I am very pleased to visit Skopje the same month that you celebrate the 30th anniversary of your country. So again, congratulations and thank you very much for the very warm welcome.

Today, the European Union has disbursed a grant of €36.4 million for the Republic of Moldova to continue supporting country's fight against COVID-19 and police reform. 

Thank you very much Prime Minister, dear Edi, I come, indeed, as a friend and as a partner. And I could not have chosen a better start for my tour through the Western Balkans than here in Albania and starting with inaugurating the Korb Muça Kindergarten and here the school – fantastic.

Ahead of the EU-Western Balkans Summit on 6 October, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will be in the Western Balkans between Tuesday and Thursday, to visit Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On Monday 27 September, High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell will address the second edition of the EU – Western Balkans Media Literacy conference, which will focus on “building resilience to disinformation”.

Today, the European Court of Auditors issued a report on its performance audit of EU support to the fight against “grand corruption” in Ukraine, covering the period 2016 to 2019.

Yesterday, Executive Vice-President Timmermans received Murat Kurum, Turkish Minister of Environment and Urbanisation, in Brussels for a high-level dialogue on climate change. 

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020, the EU, EU Member States and European financial institutions, as Team Europe, have disbursed €34 billion in support to partner countries in addressing the pandemic and its consequences, delivering on its promises with concrete results.

The European Commission welcomes the adoption on 15 September by the European Parliament of the new Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA III) for the period 2021-2027...

Whether you care about climate change, jobs, the economy, or racial and social justice, your voice will only be heard and your vote will only count if you live in a democracy.

The report published today shows that nearly 72,000 companies in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine received assistance from EU4Business and managed to create over 50,000 new jobs.

Dear Chair, Honourable Members of the Parliament, it is with great pleasure that I speak to you at this Plenary debate.

Tomorrow, Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson will host, in cooperation with High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell, Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi and the Slovenian Presidency of the Council, a videoconference meeting of EU and Western Balkans

On 6 and 7 September, Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi will travel to Turkey to discuss the state of play of the EU-Turkey relations.

Vice-President for Democracy and Demography, Dubravka Šuica, and Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, are in Slovenia today to participate in the Bled Strategic Forum.

Executive Vice-President and Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, represented the European Commission this week in Ukraine, on the occasion of its 30th anniversary of independence and the International Crimea Platform Summit...

The Commission adopted today three equivalence decisions for North Macedonia, Turkey and Ukraine. This means that the countries will be connected to the EU's system and that COVID certificates...