Western Balkans, von der Leyen: “This week approval of plans for inclusion in the single market”

Brussels – Onward with the enlargement and inclusion of the Western Balkan countries. The European Commission is ready to approve plans for the economic growth of the region’s states “this week,” announced the president of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, at the end of the meeting of the Berlin process, the forum created in 2014 to increase cooperation with the area’s candidate countries. A decision that “partially opens the doors” to the EU by allowing access to the European single market.

Greater economic integration before political integration is what the EU offers five of the six Western Balkan countries. Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Kosovo are set to receive the aid they need to increase their trade and boost their economies. A stimulus to the reform agenda and an award for those “tangible advances” that von der Leyen intends to reward. However, the German wants to be clear—this is not a paradigm shift: “Accession remains a merit-based process, and it will remain so.”

The decision to allow the Western Balkan states to join the single market is part of the broader strategy encapsulated in the region’s new growth plan. A total of six billion euros were made available in parallel with the publication of the EU Enlargement Package 2023. The von der Leyen team intended to begin disbursing the resources needed for alignment to the twelve-star free trade area before summer. Von der Leyen’s announcement is late compared to the expectations and promises made.

The opening brings the Western Balkan region closer to Europe, with the clear intent to be a political message to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We saw that enlargement for years was no longer high on the agenda,” von der Leyen recalls. “That changed, especially after Russia’s war in Ukraine, with the choice of countries that decided to be on the right side of history, for democracy and respect for the order based on international law.”