The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, has asked the six countries of the Western Balkans to speed up the reforms, warning that they risk collectively losing over 700 million euros from the Growth Plan, until the middle of this year, due to their non-implementation.
As reported by Radio Europa e Lire, from sources in the European Commission, commissioner Kos made the written warning through a letter sent on April 17 to all the capitals of the region.
The Growth Plan is performance-based and time-bound. REL sources have confirmed that with this letter, Commissioner Kos has asked all countries to accelerate the reforms foreseen in the Growth Plan, in order to fully utilize the potential of this financial package.
In fact, the financial means from the Growth Plan are limited in time. For each reform step, a final deadline for implementation is provided and a certain amount of money is allocated.
Based on the maximum amount, a total of 710.6 million euros could be lost, representing 11.84 percent of the total funding from the Growth Plan.
June of this year constitutes the moment when each country enters the so-called moment of permanent loss, if it does not fulfill the reforms agreed earlier.
– Kosovo: 68.8 million euros
-Albania: 67.7 million euros
-Bosnia and Herzegovina: 373.9 million euros
– Montenegro: 15.1 million euros
– North Macedonia: 49.2 million euros
-Serbia: between 108.7 and 135.9 million euros
The EC has also provided for the so-called “grace period”, which enables postponement of the implementation for a certain period of time. For the steps that had to be completed in the middle of 2025, the deadline expires on June 30 of this year, while for the steps that had to be completed at the end of 2024, this deadline ends in 2026. This plan, among other things, aims to double the economies of these countries during the next ten years.
