How will the EU's conditional 6 billion euros help the Balkans?

2024-02-29 13:46:00, Politikë CNA

Six billion euros - this is the fund that the European Union has planned to allocate to Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia for the period 2024-2027, to accelerate the European integration of the Western Balkans.

The plan, more or less, says this: Whoever carries out the planned reforms, gets the funds. Those who do not work are left behind.

Moreover, no country will be able to block the other in this process. Even if attempts are noticed, they can be punished.

Among the main goals of the so-called "Growth Plan for the Western Balkans" is to strengthen a common regional market, gradually integrated with that of the EU.

How will the Plan work?

It was introduced in November 2023, and foresees that two billion euros will be non-refundable funds, while the other four billion will be given in the form of affordable loans.

Each country is expected to prepare a reform agenda, based on the preliminary recommendations of the EU bodies, before its evaluation and approval by the European Commission.

Reforms in the field of order and rule of law are essential to benefit from funds from this Plan.

Expectations are that the European Parliament will finalize all procedures by April this year, to enable the release of funds as soon as possible.

Payments are expected to be made twice a year, depending on the results in fulfilling the criteria.

The EU has said that the funds, in principle, will be allocated depending on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country. But if a country does not carry out the reforms after 1-2 years, then the amount is distributed to other countries.

What should Kosovo do?

According to the Kosovar Deputy Prime Minister, Besnik Bislimi, Kosovo is expected to benefit from 950 million euros - at the same time the largest fund ever allocated by the bloc for it, in a relatively short period.

Bislimi said that on January 11, Kosovo submitted to the EU the list of reforms, through which the further advancement of public administration, the advancement of public finance management and the establishment of a focus on the green agenda and digitalization are aimed.

"In the private sector, the focus is on improving the environment for doing business, through access to finance and support for small and medium enterprises", Bislimi said during a report to a parliamentary committee in January.

In the initial presentation, in addition to the criteria that apply to all countries, as a specific precondition for Kosovo and Serbia is to make progress on the road to the normalization of relations, implementing all the agreements reached in the past.

Kosovo has requested several times that the dialogue process with Serbia does not have an impact on its path towards European integration.

But, the EU said months ago that it no longer has time to wait for the countries of the region to normalize relations, and ordered them to act quickly in this direction.

Benefits of freedom of movement
A World Bank group has estimated that a common regional market could increase the region's GDP by 10 percent.

For the EU, such a market is essential, for two reasons:

unlocks the economic potential of the region,
creates opportunities for local companies, making the region more attractive for European investors.
The movement of goods is expected to reduce the waiting time by three hours, which would then reduce the cost of tariffs by 2 percent.

Currently, the EU economy is worth over 15 trillion euros, while the economy of the Balkan countries constitutes only 0.06 percent of the bloc's economy, or about 100 billion euros.

The road to the EU

Kosovo has applied for EU membership in 2022 and now only has a Stabilization-Association Agreement with the bloc. Other countries of the Western Balkans have the status of a candidate country for EU membership.

In some cases, it has been mentioned that the EU should prepare to accept new members by 2030. According to a survey conducted by an agency of the European bloc, the majority of residents of the Western Balkans believe that EU membership would be good news.

The possibility of exchanging services and the recognition of some professional qualifications of Balkan citizens by the EU is also mentioned.

Facilitation is also expected for young people to study in the bloc, while the removal of roaming fees for mobile phones and the Internet between the countries of the Western Balkans and the EU is also foreseen./REL