Addressing the press after the meeting, Cerar said that much of the debate focused on recent European Commission's reports on the bloc's enlargement to the Western Balkans.

The prime minister used the opportunity to again extend his congratulations to Macedonia and Albania, which were given the green light to start EU accession talks.

"Slovenia remains a very active advocate of the EU enlargement both within EU institutions and as part of our bilateral activities," he said, stressing that Slovenia would continue to support countries on their path to the EU and NATO.

But he warned that the enlargement process was based on the implementation of the necessary reforms and meeting of the accession criteria.

Slovenia has played an important role in Montenegro's NATO accession, he noted, expressing hope that Athens and Skopje would solve their name issue as soon as possible, so Macedonia could join the alliance as well.

"Slovenia has been stressing the importance of cooperation and joint tackling of challenges such as mass migrations and security treats in all forums, including today's meeting," Cerar told the press.

Today's summit, attended by the prime ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia and Kosovo, also decided on the future SEECP presidencies. Slovenia will hand over the baton to Bosnia-Herzegovina at the end of June, which will pass it on to Kosovo.

The slogan of the Slovenian presidency is SEE4Future - South East Europe for Future, promoting interaction and the importance of inclusion as well as development-oriented SE Europe.

The main priorities of Slovenia's presidency are EU enlargement, security, positive youth development and digital transformation of the society.

The prime ministers also confirmed the appointment of next secretaries general of the Regional Cooperation Council. After the sixth-year term of Secretary General Goran Svilanović expired, Albanian Majlinda Bregu will take over on 1 January 2016, to be followed by Igor Lukšić of Montenegro three years later.

Apart from Slovenia, the SEECP consists of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Croatia, Moldavia, Montenegro and Kosovo.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Cerar met his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borisov, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, and held brief talks with Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.

Cerar said he and Plenković had "exchanged a few words on the arbitration and other issues" but had not conducted proper talks. "Slovenia is always open for dialogue with the neighbouring Croatia but only when that dialogue is possible and makes sense," he said.

Cerar is also scheduled to meet the prime ministers of Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ramush Haradinaj and Denis Zvizdić.