Brussels, 6 March 2024 (MIA) – The Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States to the European Union (COREPER) agreed Wednesday on the European Council’s negotiating mandate on the Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans.

The proposed facility is the centrepiece of the new Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, which aims to support the EU’s enlargement process and accelerate the economic convergence of the Western Balkan countries with the EU.

According to the European Council, covering the period from 2024 to 2027, the facility is expected to provide up to EUR 2 billion in grants and EUR 4 billion in loans to the EU's Western Balkan partners.

Payments will be subject to strict conditions in terms of achievement of reforms set out in each country’s agreed Reform Agenda

Today's agreement will allow the Council presidency to start negotiations on the final text for the facility with the European Parliament as soon as the Parliament has voted on its mandate.

The Council's negotiating mandate builds on the Commission proposal for establishing the facility, further clarifying and developing some of its elements, including the general and specific objectives of the facility and the preconditions for EU support.

One of the key changes concerns the strengthening of the Council's role in the governance of the facility, in particular in the adoption and amendment of the Reform Agendas, the monitoring of the fulfillment of the preconditions for EU support and the assessment of the fulfillment of payment conditions.

The European Commission presented a new Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, together with its annual enlargement package on November 8, 2023. The Growth Plan for the Western Balkans is based on four pillars, aimed at enhancing the Western Balkan partners' economic integration with the EU's single market, boosting economic integration within the region through the Common Regional Market, accelerating fundamental reforms, and increasing financial assistance to support the reforms through a Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans.

To fund the new Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans, EUR 2 billion of additional support was allocated to the Western Balkans as part of the mid-term revision of the multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027.

Photo: MIA Archive