“But a lot remains to be done. We need to bring our economies even closer, and we need to speed up the reforms for accession. This is why I presented to the leaders our Growth Plan. If implemented, the new Growth Plan has the potential to double the size of the Western Balkan economies still in this decade,” Von der Leyen said in her remarks at the joint press conference with the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The Growth Plan has four pillars. The first pillar of the Plan is bringing the Western Balkans into the Single Market. We basically open the door of the Single Market in seven key areas for the Western Balkan companies, already now. Just to give you a few examples on customs cooperation, e-commerce, cashless payments, road transport, electricity, roaming – just to name a few,” she said.

“The second pillar is that the Western Balkans themselves have to complete their Common Regional Market. If they complete their Common Regional Market, this could increase the GDP of the Western Balkans by 10%. So, the Western Balkans also need to open their own markets to their five neighbours and partners,” the EC President went on saying.

“The third pillar is reforms. If we want to give access to the Western Balkans to the European Single Market, of course, there needs to be a level playing field, the same rules and standards. This means reforms are necessary. And these reforms will also bring the Western Balkans closer to membership. These reforms will also make the Western Balkans even more attractive for European investors and make our respective economies – which is very important – converge. Because today, we have a situation where the Western Balkan economies are at 35% of the EU average. So there is a lot of work to be done to have more convergence of the economies,” Von der Leyen stated.

“Finally, the fourth pillar of the Plan is, if reform efforts are being done, they will be matched by increased EU funding for investment. In other words, we have proposed a EUR 6 billion investment package. This is composed of EUR 2 billion in grants and EUR 4 billion in loans. The same logic applies like to our investment plan NextGenerationEU for the Member States. That is investment and reforms. Funds will be released upon delivery of reforms. So it is conditional. It works very well in the European Union. I am deeply convinced it will work in the Western Balkans, too,” she concluded.

/r.e/u.sh/