The Commissioner for Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, visited Tirana on Thursday 29 February to discuss the future growth plan for the countries of the Western Balkans, with a budget of €6 billion for 2024-2027, with several leaders of the countries of the Western Balkans, including the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, and the Serbian President, Aleksandar Vučić (see EUROPE 13349/22).
“The leaders of the European Council have decided that €6 billion should help the region to get to the level of financial support that you see now within the European Union with the current cohesion of structural funds countries. We are not talking about abstract terms, we are talking about 2027. By 2027, the region should enjoy the same level of aid intensity. It means also that one can argue that it will be very difficult for the region to argue after 2027 that they are not ready to join the Union”, said Mr Várhelyi.
In addition, the European Commissioner, who was visiting Albania, indicated that the “European Parliament and the Council of the European Union are still working on the legislation to be passed so that the facility can be established”.
The European Commissioner also stressed the importance of creating cohesion in the Western Balkans at a time when the region is struggling to develop a regional market and tensions between some of them remain high, notably between Serbia and Kosovo (see EUROPE 13342/15).
“If I want to put it in simple terms, if you want to be treated as an EU member, then you have to treat your fellow Western Balkan partners also as an EU member”, he commented. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)