EU ties with the Western Balkans

Category: News
Organizations: European Union Kosovo
Tags:

In May, the Croatian capital Zagreb was due to host the European Union - Western Balkans summit where the leaders were among others meant to endorse an economic and investment plan for the region. This plan is one of the three strands of the new approach the European Commission developed for the region, to complement the first two: the revised methodology for EU enlargement, which the Commission put forward in February to bring credibility back to one of the most important  EU policies , and the decision to open the accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia, endorsed by the EU leaders in March, together with the revised methodology.

COVID-19 pandemic did not throw this carefully laid out plan around:  it did not change our aim, ambition nor determination. This could have easily happened: the pandemic hit the European Union and whole continent hard and caused an unthinkable loss of life. The Commission took extraordinary measures to support and assist the Member States in addressing the crisis, to save lives, protect health systems and mitigate the socio-economic impact. But at the same time the Commission was clear that the pandemic can only be defeated with global action and by working with partners.

Nowhere was this more obvious than in the Western Balkans, a region at the heart of Europe and entirely surrounded by the EU Member States. The Western Balkans was the first region where this thinking also became action. After initial difficult first days, the Commission took concrete measures already in the second part of March to provide support to all the partners in the region – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. The measures covered support for immediate needs as well as economic recovery, and financially they are now unparalleled with €3.3 billion of grants and loans.

Read more