The European Commission has approved a new growth agenda for the economies of the Western Balkans in the period 2024-2027 with funding of around 6 billion euros. The Commission states that obtaining the funds will be against some strict conditions for the countries.

The Western Balkan countries including Albania will be able to receive the funds, if only they reach some quantitative indicators.

According to the European Commission, the Reform Agenda will identify a limited group of priority reforms which will serve as payment conditions, that is, upon their achievement.The funds will be disbursed according to a predetermined deadline.

The Commission clarifies that payment conditions will be linked to specific socio-economic reforms to advance growth potential and specific reforms related to the foundations of the enlargement process, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for human rights and freedoms basic.

Macroeconomic stability, sound management of public finances, transparency and budget supervision will be the conditions for withdrawing funds from the EU, which must be met for any disbursement of funds.

Another prerequisite is that Serbia and Kosovo engage constructively in the normalization of their relations in order to fully implement all their respective obligations arising from all Dialogue Agreements.

The European Commission noted that a strong conditionality will be introduced from the creation of a payment mechanism based on the brakthrough of key reforms taking into account the recommendations from the Commission’s latest Enlargement Package.

The EC document estimates that there will be stricter rules for IPA funds. But Albania is already penalized by a part of them, as the funds from the IPARD Programs that the European Union has given to increase competition in the agricultural sector have been blocked.

The funding freeze includes an amount of 112 million euros that the EU approved for IPARD III, which would have been implemented during the period 2021-2027. With all the co-financing of the Albanian government, IPARD III was 146 million euros, which agriculture, the largest sector in the country, may lack.

In the IPARD III funds, 8 million euros were programmed to be disbursed in Albania in 2021, 10 million euros in 2022, about 12 million euros this year, 16 million in 2024, about 19 million more in 2025, while 25 million were programmed in 2026 and the last installment of 24 million euros in 2027.

/k.s/