Payment from EU Growth Plan for the Western Balkans to start before the end of this year
Photo: Berlin Process Summit
In the context of the summit of the ‘Berlin Process’ that was held on Monday in the German capital, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that payment from EU Growth Plan for the Western Balkans will start before the end of this year.
Why is this significant: The Growth Plan incentivises the Western Balkans’ preparations for EU membership by bringing forward some of its benefits which will directly benefit the citizens of the Western Balkan countries. This in turn should significantly accelerate the speed of the enlargement process and the growth of the region’s economies.
Context: Launched at last year’s summit of the Berlin Process in Tirana, the Growth Plan opens specific sectors of the EU’s Single Market to the Western Balkan countries. This opening is conditional on the implementation of reforms that are in turn supported by investment from the EU budget.
The Growth Plan was approved by the European Union in May and is worth six billion euros.
Five countries in the region have adopted the reform agendas whose implementation will be a pre-condition for the reception of payments from the Growth Plan. Only Bosnia and Herzegovina has not managed to achieve the consensus between its constituent entities on the reform agenda. This week the EU is expected to approve the reform agendas – thus paving the way for the European Commission to make the first payments from the package.
At the summit of the Berlin Process on Monday, the Western Balkans leaders adopted a new plan for the common regional market, which is an integral part of the EU’s Growth Plan for the Western Balkans
At the Summit in Berlin, von der Leyen stressed that “we needed a bridge between the Common Regional Market and the Single European Market. And this bridge is our Growth Plan for the Western Balkans”. She announced that five out of six Reform Agendas will be adopted by the Commission this week, adding that “this means that payments of six billion Euros in total will start before the end of the year”.
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