President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is in the Western Balkans this week (28-30 September) ahead of the EU-Western Balkans Summit on 6 October.

Her three-day visit began with her arrival on Tuesday morning in Tirana, where she was received by Prime Minister Edi Rama, and President Ilir Meta. Together with the Prime Minister, von der Leyen attended the inauguration of the Korab Muça School and Europa Kindergarten, which was rebuilt with EU funds under the EU4Schools programme after the devastating 2019 earthquake.

She then travelled to Skopje, where she met Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, as well as President Stevo Pendarovski and visited a youth cultural centre  with Prime Minister Zaev.

On Wednesday morning, President von der Leyen arrived in Pristina, where she met with President Vjosa Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti and visted an EU-funded kindergarten. She travels later to  Podgorica, where she will visit the Institute of Public Health which received support in the fight against the pandemic.

On Thursday the President will be in Belgrade to take part in a launch event of a railway Corridor X project. Von der Leyen’s last stop will be Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she will attend the opening ceremony of the Svilaj Bridge connecting Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.