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       The leaders of Western Balkan countries agreed Thursday to speed up regional cooperation to benefit more from a new European Union plan of financial aid that will help provide a faster road to membership.

       Brussels' plan calls for 6 billion euros to be sent to the Balkan states over the next three years in an effort to double the region's economy over the next decade and accelerate their efforts to the join the bloc. That aid is contingent on reforms that would bring their economies in line with EU rules.

       Balkan leaders have welcomed the plan, but the reform agenda is a challenge to implement.

       Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who hosted the summit in Tirana, called the new growth plan “a truly encouraging result of a friendly and open exchange of views.”

       “The new opportunity of this out-of-the box plan represents not only recognition from the EU of our decade-long efforts to build a common future against the savage winds of the past, but also challenges us to demonstrate our readiness for a shared European destiny,” he said in an opening speech.

       The region's six countries — Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia — are at different stages in their applications for membership, but residents have been frustrated with the slow pace of the process. Croatia was the last EU member country to be accepted in 2013.

       EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said the European Commission aims to halve the implementation time for the new “ambitious” plan.

       Varhelyi told reporters that the Western Balkan countries agreed to take concrete steps this year such as unifying their financial regulations. Rama said banking transaction costs are six times higher for countries in the region and the new rules would save a half billion euros ($540 million).

       The six countries also pledged to adapt customs regulations and create joint border crossings like EU member countries.

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       The coffin carrying the remains of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was lowered into the ground of a Moscow cemetery on Friday, his allies said.

       Relatives and supporters of the late opposition figure bade farewell to Navalny at a funeral on Friday in south-eastern Moscow, following a battle with authorities over the release of his body after his still-unexplained death in an Arctic penal colony.

       As his coffin was removed from the hearse and taken inside the church, the crowd waiting outside broke into respectful applause and then chanted: “Navalny! Navalny!” Some also shouted, “You weren’t afraid, neither are we!” and later “No to war!”

       A photo from inside the church showed an open casket with Navalny’s body covered with red and white flowers, and his mother sitting beside it holding a candle.

       Relatives and friends pay their last respects at the coffin of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows.AP Photo

       His supporters said several churches in Moscow refused to hold the service before Navalny’s team got permission from one in the capital’s Maryino district, where he once lived before his 2020 poisoning, treatment in Germany and subsequent arrest on his return to Russia.

       His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, spent eight days trying to get authorities to release the body following his 16 February death at Penal Colony No. 3 in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,900 kilometres northeast of Moscow.

       A message from Alexei Navalny's mother

       Authorities originally said they couldn't turn over the body because they needed to conduct post-mortem tests. Navalnaya, 69, made to President Vladimir Putin to release the body so she could bury her son with dignity.

       Once it was released, at least one funeral director said he had been “forbidden” to work with Navalny’s supporters, the spokeswoman for Navalny's team, Kira Yarmysh, said on social media. They also were unable to find a hearse for the funeral.

       “Unknown people are calling up people and threatening them not to take Alexei’s body anywhere,” Yarmysh said Thursday.

       Russian authorities haven’t announced the cause of death for Navalny, 47, who crusaded against official corruption and organized big protests as Putin’s fiercest political foe. Many Western leaders (blamed the death on the Russian leader, which the Kremlin rejected).

       Western diplomats, including U.S. Ambassador Lynn Tracy, were among those who attended, along with presidential hopefuls Boris Nadezhdin and Yekaterina Duntsova. Navalny's father was also present, but it wasn't clear who else in his family attended, with many of his relatives and associates in exile abroad due to fear of prosecution in Russia.

       Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his regional offices were designated as “extremist organizations” by the Russian government in 2021.

       Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Alexei Navalny addresses EU Parliament in StrasbourgJean-Francois Badias/APhttps://newsroom.ap.org/detail/FranceRussiaNavalny/bebb81d207fc473fb7ba4b42c832e261/photo?Query=navalny&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=now-14d&totalCount=581¤tItemNo=22

       The politician’s team said the funeral would have been streamed live on Navalny’s YouTube channel.

       His widow accused Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin of trying to block a public funeral.

       “We don’t want any special treatment — just to give people the opportunity to say farewell to Alexei in a normal way,” Yulia Navalnaya wrote on X. In a speech to European lawmakers Wednesday in Strasbourg, France, she also expressed fears that police might interfere with the gathering or would "arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband.”

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       As NATO allies continue to reject calls to send ground troops into Ukraine, around 5,000 German soldiers are preparing to relocate to Lithuania in 2027, in a historic move that will see the first permanent deployment of German troops since the Second World War.

       German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius visited troops in Bavaria who will be affected by the move. He said Germany has "experience with foreign deployments, including through the Battle Group".

       "Nevertheless, the conditions here are different, as we are talking about several years and, in many cases, deployments accompanied by families," Pistorius added.

       Germany is to deploy two combat battalions to support Lithuania following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.

       Lithuania announces €200m aid package for Ukraine

       The reinforcement of Lithuania is high on the agenda amid mounting concerns about a potential attack from Moscow, whose Kaliningrad enclave borders Lithuania, along with its ally Belarus.

       The permanent deployment of German troops will be only 100 km away from the border of Russia. NATO hopes the stationing of the troops will protect Lithuania as they predict Russia could attack the 60km stretch of land on the Polish-Lithuanian border called the 'Suwalki Gap,' if the conflict escalates.

       Watch the full report in the player above to find out more