The six Western Balkan countries will probably not manage to complete their connection to the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) by 2030, the European Court of Auditors noted in a report published on Tuesday 9 June.
“In the Western Balkans, transport projects are progressing too slowly for the region to be connected to the EU before the end of this decade”, said Laima Andrikienė, the member of the court responsible for the report, in a statement. In her view, “the European Commission should improve project selection, monitoring and sustainability, and increase the visibility of European funding for transport in the region”.
In particular, the court points to weaknesses in the selection of transport projects (rail, inland waterways, roads) that had not reached maturity, in other words where preparatory work was not completed on time. In general, projects started 17 months late, and many of them were delayed by more than two years during implementation.
Based on the sample of projects selected for the report, railway projects in Serbia (Corridors X and Xc) and in Kosovo (Route 10) did not materialise. Road works, by contrast, are more advanced in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Corridor Vc) and in North Macedonia (Corridor VIII).
The Commission financed the selected projects to the tune of €527 million between 2015 and 2025, through the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF). However, according to the auditors, it does not have effective procedures in place to monitor projects, often delegating this task to financial institutions. It is not in a position to identify possible shortcomings in public procurement (lack of precision in agreed prices, non-compliance with eligible expenditure) or to guarantee the sustainability and visibility of European aid.
As a result, the court notes, the amounts paid out were too high in relation to progress on certain projects. Meanwhile, WBIF grants, which were supposed to create a leverage effect, were not always decisive in mobilising the funds required for certain projects.
See the Court of Auditors’ report: https://aeur.eu/f/m97 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)