North Macedonia and Albania are the first countries in the Balkan region to which the European Union has made the first payments of financing from the Western Balkans Growth Plan. EU sources say that the payment will soon be made to Serbia. This means that according to the EU, Serbia has also fulfilled the specific precondition of constructive behavior in the normalization of relations with Kosovo. Kosovo has not ratified the “loan agreement” with the EU in the Parliament and until it does so, it cannot receive payments. Meanwhile, the EU is maintaining the punitive measures imposed on Kosovo in June 2023.
BThe European Union has announced that it has made the first payments to the Republic of Albania from the Western Balkans Growth Plan. This is “pre-financing” which amounts to 7 percent of the total funds allocated to Albania from this plan. Albania has already been paid 64,5 million euros, of which 34 million are loans for the state budget, while the rest is for infrastructure.
A day ago, the EU announced that it had made the first payments to North Macedonia.
North Macedonia and Albania are the first countries in the Balkan region to which the EU has made the first disbursements of funding from the Western Balkans Growth Plan. EU sources say that the payment will soon be made to Serbia as well. This means that according to the EU, Serbia has also fulfilled the specific precondition for constructive behavior in the normalization of relations with Kosovo.
Kosovo has not ratified the “loan agreement” with the EU in Parliament and until it does so, it cannot receive payments. Meanwhile, the EU is maintaining the punitive measures imposed on Kosovo in June 2023.
For Kosovo and Serbia, in addition to the general conditions that apply to all countries in the region, a prerequisite is also constructive engagement in the process of normalizing relations.
If the EU has decided to make the first payments to Serbia, then the External Action Service (EEAS) and the European Commission have assessed that Serbia’s behavior in normalizing relations is constructive. This seems “questionable” to some European diplomats, given that there have been some actions by Serbia that the EU itself has called a violation of obligations from the Agreement on the path to normalization of relations with Kosovo.
The EU says they are ready to make payments to Kosovo, but it is Kosovo that has not completed its internal procedures. And Kosovo cannot even complete these procedures at this moment because it does not have a constituted Assembly that could ratify the Agreement. So, until the Assembly is constituted, Kosovo is unlikely to receive the first payments from this plan.
These agreements have the character of international agreements and therefore must be ratified by the Assembly of Kosovo with a two-thirds majority vote.
The EU has decided that all countries for which reform and growth agendas have been approved will be paid a “frontloading payment”, an amount of 7 percent of the funds dedicated to that respective country. All countries in the region, with the exception of Bosnia and Herzegovina, have fulfilled the condition of approving the reform agendas.
The total package is worth 6 billion euros for all countries in the region for the period from 2024 to 2027. Of this amount, 2 billion are non-repayable EU grants, while the rest are in the form of soft loans. According to an unofficial estimate, Kosovo could benefit from over 880 million euros from this growth plan.
Over 250 million will be allocated to Kosovo as non-refundable money, while the rest will be in the form of soft loans.
According to this, Kosovo would be paid 7 percent initially as “pre-financing,” which amounts to about 61 million euros. Per capita, Kosovo would benefit the most from this package of all countries in the region.
Albania will benefit from a total of 922 million euros, North Macedonia will have a total of 750 million euros available, Serbia 1.58 billion euros, Bosnia and Herzegovina 1 billion and 85 million euros, while Montenegro 383 million euros.
