Western Balkans leaders pledge to speed up reforms for EU growth plan

The leaders of Western Balkan countries agreed Thursday to speed up regional cooperation to benefit more from a new European Union plan of financial aid that will help provide a faster road to membership.

Brussels’ plan calls for 6 billion euros to be sent to the Balkan states over the next three years in an effort to double the region’s economy over the next decade and accelerate their efforts to the join the bloc. That aid is contingent on reforms that would bring their economies in line with EU rules.

Balkan leaders have welcomed the plan, but the reform agenda is a challenge to implement.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who hosted the summit in Tirana, called the new growth plan “a truly encouraging result of a friendly and open exchange of views.”

“The new opportunity of this out-of-the box plan represents not only recognition from the EU of our decade-long efforts to build a common future against the savage winds of the past, but also challenges us to demonstrate our readiness for a shared European destiny,” he said in an opening speech.

The region’s six countries — Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia — are at different stages in their applications for membership, but residents have been frustrated with the slow pace of the process. Croatia was the last EU member country to be accepted in 2013.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said the European Commission aims to halve the implementation time for the new “ambitious” plan.

Varhelyi told reporters that the Western Balkan countries agreed to take concrete steps this year such as unifying their financial regulations. Rama said banking transaction costs are six times higher for countries in the region and the new rules would save a half billion euros ($540 million).

The six countries also pledged to adapt customs regulations and create joint border crossings like EU member countries.