Imagine starting a business in another Balkan country, signing official documents or accessing public services without visiting government offices or submitting the same paperwork repeatedly. That is the vision behind a major regional digital initiative, but officials warn that without compatible systems, the Western Balkans risks creating six separate digital bureaucracies.
HERCEG NOVI, Montenegro, Oct. 12 (BalkanView) — The six Western Balkan economies are seeking to accelerate the integration of their digital markets and public services as a three-day regional summit opens in Montenegro, with officials calling for practical reforms that would allow citizens and businesses to use electronic identities, signatures and government services across borders.
The Western Balkans Digital Summit, taking place from Oct. 12 to 14 in Herceg Novi, brings together representatives of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia to discuss digital integration, cybersecurity and closer alignment with the European Union’s Digital Single Market.
Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) Secretary-General Amer Kapetanović said the success of the summit should be measured by improvements in everyday life rather than political declarations.
In an interview with Forbes Montenegro ahead of the gathering, Kapetanović argued that digital transformation would deliver limited benefits if each economy merely transferred its existing administrative barriers onto separate electronic platforms.
The priority, he said, should be developing systems that communicate with one another and comply with European standards.
One digital identity across six economies
One of the summit’s central objectives is to establish a framework allowing digital identities and electronic signatures issued in one Western Balkan economy to become usable in another.
Such arrangements could eventually enable citizens to complete administrative procedures, authenticate documents and access selected services without physically travelling across borders.
Kapetanović said the region had already established a common direction for developing interoperable digital identities and electronic trust services at the previous summit in Skopje.
That initiative was aligned with the EU’s revised electronic identification framework, known as eIDAS 2.0.
The next challenge is implementation.
According to Kapetanović, governments need to agree on responsibilities, deadlines and practical steps that would translate political commitments into functioning services.
The goal is not necessarily to create a single digital platform for the entire region, but to ensure that national systems can recognise and communicate with one another.
The roaming agreement as a model
The RCC chief pointed to the elimination of mobile roaming surcharges within the Western Balkans as evidence that regional cooperation can produce tangible results.
Under the regional roaming arrangement, mobile users can travel between the six economies without paying additional roaming charges for services covered by the agreement, subject to applicable fair-use conditions.
Kapetanović said the agreement demonstrated how coordinated regulatory reforms could directly benefit millions of people.
He argued that similar cooperation should now extend to digital identities, electronic signatures and public administration.
For businesses, interoperable systems could reduce administrative costs and simplify cross-border operations.
For citizens, they could eliminate repeated requests for documents already held by public institutions.
Digital transformation or digital bureaucracy?
Despite progress in developing electronic government services, the quality and accessibility of digital administration continue to vary considerably across the region.
Kapetanović warned that technology alone would not resolve these weaknesses.
Governments can purchase sophisticated software, he said, but transforming the internal procedures of public institutions is considerably more difficult.
Simply transferring complicated paper-based procedures onto online platforms does not necessarily make public administration more efficient.
A meaningful digital reform should allow citizens to complete procedures without visiting government counters, avoid submitting information already available to public authorities and access services without advanced technical knowledge.
Kapetanović argued that interoperability requires more than technical connections.
It also depends on compatible legislation, institutional trust, data protection and political commitment to administrative simplification.
He warned against creating six isolated digital systems that would reproduce existing borders in electronic form.
Cybersecurity becomes a regional priority
Cybersecurity is another major issue on the summit’s agenda.
As governments transfer more public services and sensitive information online, cyberattacks can disrupt institutions, businesses and essential infrastructure.
Kapetanović acknowledged that the Western Balkans had improved its cybersecurity capabilities but lacked a fully developed mechanism for automatically coordinating responses to major regional incidents.
He said the immediate priority should be strengthening cooperation between existing institutions rather than establishing additional bureaucratic structures.
The region already has national Computer Security Incident Response Teams, commonly known as CSIRTs, alongside the Western Balkans Cyber Capacity Centre in Podgorica and other regional and international initiatives.
Better information-sharing, coordinated training and clearly established communication procedures could help authorities respond more effectively to cross-border threats.
Kapetanović also stressed the importance of aligning cybersecurity legislation and institutional capabilities with European standards, including the EU’s NIS2 cybersecurity framework.
However, he warned that adopting legislation was only the beginning.
The real measure of progress, he said, was whether institutions could prevent incidents, identify threats and respond effectively.
EU integration increasingly depends on digital compatibility
The summit comes as the European Union expands its digital infrastructure and regulatory framework.
Under eIDAS 2.0, EU member states are developing European Digital Identity Wallets designed to allow users to identify themselves, authenticate information and access selected services across borders.
For Western Balkan economies seeking EU membership, compatibility with these systems could become increasingly important.
Kapetanović identified three areas requiring particular attention: digital identity, interoperability of public services and cybersecurity.
He said regional partners were progressing at different speeds but needed to ensure their systems developed in a common direction.
The challenge is particularly significant for smaller economies, which may lack the financial resources and specialised personnel required to develop sophisticated digital infrastructure independently.
Regional cooperation could reduce duplication, facilitate knowledge-sharing and help governments adopt solutions already tested elsewhere.
Montenegro seeks investment and stronger digital partnerships
Hosting the summit provides Montenegro with an opportunity to strengthen its position in the regional technology sector.
The gathering is taking place during Montenegro’s presidency of the Berlin Process, a European initiative supporting regional cooperation and economic integration in the Western Balkans.
Kapetanović said the summit could help connect Montenegrin technology companies with regional partners, European institutions and potential investors.
Possible benefits include joint projects, technology partnerships, greater visibility for domestic information and communications technology companies and improved access to wider markets.
However, he cautioned that hosting an international conference would not automatically generate investment or new digital services.
The results would depend on whether governments and businesses converted discussions into concrete initiatives.
The summit is organised by Montenegro’s Ministry of Public Administration under the government’s patronage, in partnership with the RCC.
The next test for Western Balkan cooperation
The region has repeatedly committed itself to creating a more integrated economic space, including through the Common Regional Market initiative and the Berlin Process.
Digital integration could become one of the most visible areas in which those commitments produce practical benefits.
Recognising electronic signatures across borders, simplifying administrative procedures and strengthening cybersecurity cooperation could reduce costs for businesses and make public services more accessible.
Yet implementation will require governments to address legal differences, institutional resistance, uneven technical capacity and concerns about the protection of personal data.
The summit’s significance will therefore depend less on the declarations adopted in Herceg Novi than on the agreements, technical milestones and services delivered afterward.
For the Western Balkans, the challenge is to move from six national digital systems towards a region where electronic services can function across borders — and ultimately connect more closely with the European Union.