Prishtina, 04.04.2019 – During
the Western Balkans Digital Summit in Belgrade, the Minister of Economic Development, Valdrin
Lluka has signed, on behalf of Kosovo, the agreement for reducing the roaming
prices for the Western Balkan countries.

The signatories
of the Agreement, which is to be titled “Roam like at home”, will start to gradually
reduce roaming prices as of 1^st of July 2019, whereas as of 1^st
of July 2021 there will be no basic roaming prices.

This agreement
was signed by the 6 Western Balkans countries, i.e. Kosovo, Albania, North
Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

Minister Lluka
expressed his satisfaction for the conclusion of such an agreement and stated
that this will be a step further toward better interconnectivity among Balkan
countries.

“The conclusion
of such agreement is good news to the Western Balkan countries. I believe this
agreement to be a step further toward increasing regional cooperation between
Western Balkan countries”, stated Minister Lluka.

The European
Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel, stated that the
European Union will support the agreement for digitalization of the Balkans.

“This is your
agreement, and the EU will support it. You can count on our support. This is a
historical date, and you have to work in this regard. The European Digital
Agenda is not a mere statement, but rather much more. The EU has allocated over
EUR 30 million to this purpose, namely to the digitalization of the Balkans”
stated Commissioner Gabriel.

On the other
hand, Majlinda Bregu, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council,
stated that this agreement is a good opportunity for, inter alia, businesses to
connect to one-another.

“This digital
agenda is helping our integration despite not being part of the European Union.
Our key challenge is Digital integration. The agreement that is to be signed to
today represents an opportunity for equal treatment of all Western Balkans
citizens, and for connecting businesses with one-another”, stated Bregu.

During this
two-day stay, Minister Lluka will be part of different panels and discussions
that will focus on digitalization and increasing regional cooperation.