Brief
New Growth Plan for the Western Balkans
An important step forward, while much is yet to be done
By Milena Mihajlović, Programme Director at the European Policy Center (CEP), Belgrade & Lukáš Macek, head of the Centre Grande Europe at Jacques Delors Institute, Paris
Quote this publication
Mihajlović, M. & Macek, L. “New Growth Plan for the Western Balkans”, Brief, Jacques Delors Institute, March 2024
A stimulating new package in support of Western Balkan countries’ accession is on the EU decision-making table. Half a year after the big announcement by the Commission President, the details of the New Growth Plan for the Western Balkans (the Plan) were presented on 8 November 2023, along with the standard annual Enlargement Package. The Commission’s proposal is in line with the European Council’s June 2022 invitation “to further advance the gradual integration between the European Union and the region already during the enlargement process itself in a reversible and merit-based manner”.
Aligned with the objective of “a determined geostrategic investment in a stable, strong and united Europe” and accelerating “the speed of the enlargement process and the growth of [the Western Balkans’] economies”, the Plan rests on four key pillars: 1. Economic integration with the single market, 2. Regional economic integration through the Common Regional Market, 3. Fundamental reforms, and 4. Increased financial assistance through the Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans (RGFWB, Facility). Rather than reforming the accession process, the Plan intends to stimulate and build on the existing approach – primarily based on the Stabilisation an Association Agreements and the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) – with a view to increasing its effectiveness and bringing forward greater benefits for candidate countries.
Although the new funds needed for the RGFWB were only approved on 1 February 2024, in late 2023 the Commission already invited each Western Balkan partner to prepare a “Reform Agenda”. These documents will stipulate the socio-economic and fundamental reforms that will serve as the basis for disbursing the newly proposed funds. The Commission seems – more than ever in the past decade – eager to show to Member States that Western Balkan countries are deserving of an additional push in their integration efforts. At the same time, the region still seems lulled in its awkwardly comfortable position, in which the EU is to blame for the lack of progress and the dire state of its rule of law and democratic reforms.
In this article, we discuss the novelties of the proposed Plan, including proposals on market integration and links between funding and reforms. In addition, we assess the Plan’s shortcomings and certain potential risks associated with its implementation. In conclusion, the article discusses the current positions of the Western Balkan countries in the accession process, to determine how they affect their capacity to seize the new enlargement momentum and to leverage the potential offered by the Plan.
SUR LE MÊME THÈME
ON THE SAME THEME
PUBLICATIONS
THE EUROPEAN POLITICAL COMMUNITY
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Transnistria, in the shadow of the war in Ukraine
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Montenegro’s EU Push: Imminent Opportunities and Challenges
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Elections in Serbia 2023: One month later
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Montenegro’s new government: marching towards the European Union
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Rival Influences in the Western Balkans: Hard Facts and Limitations
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The European Political Community’s own merits and limits
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Depopulation in the Western Balkans
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[FR] Kosovo/Serbia tensions
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[FR] In the minds of the Balkans
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Enlargement of the European Union: an unexpected revival
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Advocating gradual accession to the European Union
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How enlargement accomplishes European unity while changing its nature
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Launch of the Jacques Delors Institute’s Grande Europe Centre dedicated to enlargement
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The European Political Community
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Bosnia and Herzegovina under pressure
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Western Balkans:
where is the enlargement process up to?
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United in growing diversity: How the EU takes intercultural relations into account in its Western Balkans enlargement policy
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The EU and enlargement ten years on: success and improvement
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The Baltic states in the EU: yesterday, today and tomorrow
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What borders for the EU: a variable geometry neighborhood?
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“Europe” and its “enlargements”: enough… or do we want more?
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Averting two pitfalls: illusion and inertia
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Desperately looking for more EU-Turkey geo-political and geo-economic cooperation
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The EU, its Neighbours and its Borders
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Enlargement: a Tool for the EU, a Prospect for Our Neighbours
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Enlargement of Europe: some consequences for France
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European “avant-garde”, a new centre of gravity for Europe
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Turkey at the gates of Europe
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Enlargement of Another Kind
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A driving force despite everything, Franco-German relations and the Enlarged European Union
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The EU Institutional Crisis: By the Way… What do the new Member States think?
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A new mechanism of enhanced co-operation for the enlarged European Union
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Reform of EU policies in the perspective of enlargement and their financial implications
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Direct investment in Central and Eastern Europe Union
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Adaptation of Cohesion policy to the enlarged Europe and the Lisbon and Göthenburg objectives
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Social Europe in the throes of enlargement
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The Enlarged European Commission
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Speech of Jacques Delors at the Conference of European Institutes of Statistiques
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Direct investement in new Central and Oriental Europe’s member
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Enlargement of the European Union: Towards a large area of solidarity and cooperation
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An “Avant-garde” driving the European unification process forward
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MÉDIAS
MEDIAS
“Existe o mito de uma UE antiga e pequena, onde as coisas eram faceis
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What’s at stake for Europe in Ukraine’s EU membership talks?
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Début des négociations pour l’adhésion de l’Ukraine et la Moldavie à l’Union européenne
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