BRUSSELS: The European Council today gave its final green light to setting up a ‘Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans’, a new instrument to support EU-related reforms and economic growth in the region.
The facility is the financial pillar of the growth plan for the Western Balkans. It will cover the period from 2024 to 2027 and is expected to provide up to pound 2 billion in grants and pound 4 billion in loans to the EU’s six Western Balkan partners in the coming years.
The main aim of the facility is to support Western Balkan partners’ alignment with the EU’s values, laws, rules, standards, policies and practices, with a view to future EU membership, as well as their progressive integration into the EU single market and socio-economic convergence with the EU.
The facility will support a range of socio-economic and fundamental reforms, including reforms related to the rule of law and fundamental rights.
In order to receive support under the facility, each partner in the region must prepare a
reform agenda, setting out the reforms it plans to undertake to achieve the facility’s objectives.
Source: Emirates News Agency