President of the association address the audience at the Third High Level Conference of Customs Directors General of the Western Balkans in Athens
“Bridging Markets, Aligning Standards: Green Lanes as a Pillar of Enhanced Integration into the EU Single Market was overarching theme of the third high-level conference of Customs Directors General of the Western Balkans and EU Member States, held in Athens on 11 of June 2026.
The conference brought together Customs Directors General from the Western Balkans and EU Member States, senior representatives of the European Commission’s Directorates-General for Taxation and Customs Union and for Enlargement and Eastern Neighborhood, the CEFTA Secretariat, and the Transport Community Permanent Secretariat — making it one of the most senior customs forums in the region.
Speaking on behalf of the Association, President Genc Çeli addressed the audience on what is the business perspective regarding the instruments for strategic enlargement, AEO partnerships and risk management alignment.
In his remarks, Mr. Çeli
introduced the Association as an organized, credible, and regionally present private sector voice — established in 2021, structured across all six Western Balkans economies, and engaged in sustained dialogue with customs authorities, the CEFTA Secretariat, and international partners. He underlined that the business community represented by the Western Balkans AEO Association tends not to be a passive observer of the EU integration agenda, but an active stakeholder — investing in compliance, in supply chain security, and in the operational standards necessary for achieving and sustaining the AEO status, an efforts stimulated by genuine belief in the European future of the region. The Western Balkan AEO Association is supported by the RegioTrade&EU4Trade project, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, co-funded by the European Union. On this occasion Ms. Tanja Boskovic, Head of the project address the audience underlaying the importance and efforts the project is placing to facilitate regional economic integration into the EU Single Market and the support to the private sector provided throughout these processes.
On Green Lanes, Mr. Çeli noted that for AEO-certified companies, a functioning Green Lane is not a policy concept — it is operational reality, felt immediately in predictability, time, and business confidence. On AEO partnerships, he emphasised that the relationship between compliant traders and modern, risk-based customs administrations must be built on genuine mutual trust — and that Green Lanes and AEO programmes are architecturally inseparable.
Mr. Çeli closed by extending the Association’s appreciation to customs administrations across the region for the progress achieved, and by welcoming the momentum building around a dedicated AEO structure within CEFTA as a natural platform for structured public-private dialogue.
