New Western Balkans funding could flow by summer, enlargement chief says

The EU’s new funding package for the six Western Balkans hopefuls, aimed at boosting fledgling reforms in the region, could see reform plans submitted and first disbursements made ‘before the end of the summer break’, Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi told Euractiv.

His comments come as the European Parliament and Council  reached a provisional deal on Thursday (4 April) on a new €6 billion Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans.

The agreed provisional text still needs to be approved by both, which could happen by this months’ plenary session.

The region’s six countries — Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia — are at different stages in their applications for membership, but citizens have been frustrated with the slow pace of the process and lack of visible progress. Of the six, only Kosovo is not yet an official candidate for membership.

The financial support is expected to act as a ‘carrot’ for further reform commitments in the countries’ respective EU accession process.

“The next step is going to be that we want to see the respective reform agendas for this year so that we can proceed with the payments – hopefully still before the end of the summer break,” Várhelyi said.

Avoiding ‘sour years’

Asked about the long-term perspective of the Western Balkans Facility, Várhelyi said that after 2027, “the EU will have a vested interest not only to continue but also to get them into the bloc”.

“If you look at the previous enlargement, this was the element that was done differently, which has created the ten sour years after enlargement, because of the huge economic and social gap between the earlier EU members and the new ones.”

“This is what we want to avoid with this plan,” Várhelyi said and added:

“I do hope that by 2027 – when we start with the next MFF [seven-year EU budget] – it will be obvious that we will not only have to maintain, but to go forward and get the means.”

Reform and safeguards

Asked about the provisions for the case that conditions are not met, Várhelyi said the European Commission “will look at those in terms of how they comply with the outstanding work in the [annual] enlargement package”.

“[The Western Balkan countries] will put forward the reform steps that they can do for the specific year (…) the plan is to boost [their efforts], not to hold them back,” Várhelyi said.

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) concluded in a 2022 report that the EU’s €700 million in support to the region between 2014 and 2020 had, in the end, virtually no impact at all in eradicating corruption or strengthening the rule of law.

Asked about the criticism, Várhelyi pointed out that compared to the previous budget cycle, there are more stringent safeguards than before.

“During the EU budgetary cycle, the reform agenda is much more front and centre and, on top of this, we have the new enlargement methodology which this European Commission has put forward, which brought the rule of law issues to the front,” Várhelyi said.

“If you look at the level of implementation at this stage of the Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans, we are above 65% of implementation  –  that’s the highest within the whole EU budget,” he said.

“This means that there is a clear strong ownership by the region to implement this and it means that now it needs to be translated into reforms as well.”

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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