Italy can help Western Balkan countries "overcome the conflicts and tensions" still destabilising the region and attain peace and prosperity founded on "European Union values", president Sergio Mattarella wrote on Monday.
'Italy's contribution to making the Balkans a land of peace is a push to overcome the conflicts and tensions still present in the area, allowing stabilisation processes and a European perspective to prevail for each of the regional partners," Mattarella wrote.
"The prospect of peace and prosperity will be strengthened by the reunification of the Balkan countries, with Italy, Slovenia and Croatia representing a bedrock of European Union values," Mattarella continued.
Mattarella's remarks were contained in a statement issued by the Quirinal presidential palace in Rome to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Osimo.
The controversial treaty split the Free Territory of Trieste between the two states, giving Italy the port city and a narrow coastal strip to the northwest and a portion of the Istrian peninsula's northwest to Yugoslavia.
The treaty was signed on 10 November 1975 by Italy and Yugoslavia in Osimo, in the province of Ancona in the Marche region.
