EU close to finalisation of tools for Western Balkans

The European Union is very close to concluding the procedures for adopting reform agendas, which have been presenting the Western Balkan countries as a condition to benefit from the growth Plan package, worth 6 billion euros.

A beneficiary of the Plan that was approved by the EU in May are all countries in the region: Kosovo, Albania, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

The IPA Commission ( Pre-Accession Instruments) gave final consent on 11 October for only five of the six countries, which have presented the reform agendas and growth.

The only country in the region, which cannot yet expect the approval of its agenda, is Bosnia and Herzegovina, since the document this country has submitted to the EU has not been complete and has not addressed all suggestions provided by the European Commission.

The European Commission is expected on October 16th to approve the decision to implement.

In this way, the European Commission will be willing to carry out the first payments from the package in question.

But before these payments are made, the beneficiary countries must sign agreements and ratify them in their national parliaments, because two billion euros will be cash without return, while others will be favourable loans.

Therefore, beneficiary countries must ratify the agreements, as they must be obliged to return money from favourable loans.

Because of procedures that take time to approve such agreements, it is difficult to predict when the first payments will be made and which country in the region.

In reality, they may take place at the beginning of 2025, but if a country is rushed and carried out earlier with the ratification of the agreements, then these tools could be paid earlier.

The EU's idea is that all countries, for which reform and growth agendas will be approved, will be divided as pre-financed “the amount of 7% of the means dedicated to them.

With this package, the EU aims to help economic growth in the countries of the region and thus accelerate their European integration process.

According to an unofficial estimate, Kosovo could benefit more than 880m euros from this growth plan.

Over 250m euros, Kosovo would be earmarked as non-return money, while the rest in the form of convenient loans.

Consequently, Kosovo would be paid 7% of the means such as “prefinance”, which is about 61m euros.

Albania will benefit a total of 922m euros, while as a “pre-finance tool” 64.5m.

Northern Macedonia could have 750m euros available, while its first payment would be 52.5m.

Serbia would share a total of 1.88 billion euros, while its first payment would be 111m euros.

Montenegro would have a total of 383m euros available, while as “prefinance” 26.8m.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the total of the plan, would have 1 billion and 85m euros available, while as “prefinance” 76 million.

The estimate of which country will have access to how many financial means is made on the basis of Bruto Local Production (GDP), the number of residents and several other criteria.

But, since the first presentation of this plan, earlier this year, the countries of the region were clearly told that if one did not commit reforms after a couple of years, then the amount dedicated to it would be distributed to other countries.

The plan also aims to promote regional co-operation and the development of the common market in the region, which would gradually be integrated into the common European Union market.

This plan, according to EU officials, is in no way intended to create any alternative to EU enlargement, but to make EU membership of these countries easier.

The European Union wants the first payments from this plan to be carried out as soon as possible and to start implementing projects that would be financed through them.

At the same time, in the EU, they also recall the conditions that must be met during the entire process of implementing projects.

They deal with rule of law, financial control and adequate auditing according to European standards, while in the case of Kosovo and Serbia, the specific condition is also constructive engagement in normalising their reports.

In the event of misuse of these tools, the EU could demand their return, while untapped means from any country could be exploited for another region.

So far, this is the European Union's most ambitious plan for the countries of the region, which is not part of ordinary tools from pre-membership instruments (IPA), dedicated to countries from the enlargement process, including those of the Western Balkans. / REL