The enlargement process and providing a credible enlargement perspective to the Western Balkans have been a priority for this Commission as you know. From day number one of this mandate, we have tried to put this issue back on the leaders’ agenda. And with the present geopolitical and economic crisis instigated by Russia’s war against Ukraine, enlargement is back among the top 3 priorities of the European Union. And not only of the European Union, but also the leaders of the European Union, said Commissioner Oliver Várhelyi at the opening speech at the conference on Italy and Western Balkans.
“This is why it is even more essential to give a push, a stronger support than ever before to our neighbours, not only to keep them on the EU path, but also to accelerate their integration into the European Union. Because there is an unequivocal commitment at the highest level of our Member States for the European perspective, meaning, being or becoming a member of the European Union for all partners on the Western Balkans. Our actions, however, must match this commitment, and plenty of the achievements have been made, but a lot will still have to be delivered. Not to talk about to have at least one country joining in the very near future – at least one country”, stated.Várhelyi
Let me just walk you through what we have been doing so far under this mandate and how we have managed to put this issue back on the table, but it will also give you an idea what we are doing.
- As a first step, already in February 2020, we have put a new enlargement methodology on the table. It does not say much – new enlargement methodology, sounds very Brusselish – but to give you a flavour, that is the rules of the game. That is the rules of engagement when it comes to enlargement. This is how we can run the enlargement process, and these are the rulebooks of enlargement. And in that it was very clear that we have to bring back the core principles of enlargement policy. Not only for the Western Balkans, but also for our own Member States. And this was a joint effort with our Member States to bring back a more credible, a more dynamic, a more predictable and a more political driven process of enlargement.
- Based on that we have been able to open and break the deadlock around the opening of accession negotiations for Albania and North Macedonia. This is how we have managed to break again another deadlock and have the first Intergovernmental Conferences for both countries last year, last July.
- Serbia and Montenegro also opted-in to the new methodology which means an even higher level of commitment on their sides to accelerate their reforms with us accelerating our own delivery of EU membership for them. We had political IGC with Montenegro, we have opened a cluster of 4 chapters with Serbia, but of course, work does not stop here. We have to go further.
- And only very lately, in October last year, we have proposed for the European Council to grant candidate status for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the European Council agreed with our proposal and has granted candidate status for Bosnia and Herzegovina last December. This is a strong encouragement for the entire region of the Western Balkans, that Europe is back. Europe is ready to deliver if the Balkan is also ready to deliver.
But these are of course perfect examples only from last year and the year before, but this is more about the institutional or the political integration part of the process.
This is terribly amusing of course for the people in Brussels maybe, and maybe in some capitals, but here in Trieste, I think there is more to it than this. There is more to it because the political integration on its own will never work. Political integration only works if we have real integration of the Western Balkans. Real integration means the integration economically and socially of the Western Balkans into the European Union.
Now let me give you a few examples why I think the real integration has to be as important as the political one:
I. First, in the following months, you will see an accelerated implementation of the so-called Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans. This is now I think the most important common goal apart from going forward with the political process. The Plan – as you may know – is able to mobilize EUR 30 billion of investments on the Western Balkans, under this mandate. This represents 1/3 of the GDP of the entire region.
This Plan is already bearing fruit. But this Plan is a plan that has been drawn up together with our partners. This was the new approach. And this Plan is a plan that is here to address the biggest bottlenecks in front of the real integration for the Western Balkans. It means investing into big infrastructure projects, to have connectivity when it comes to energy, when it comes to transport, when it comes to deploying renewable energy resources and when it comes to creating a digital economy in the Western Balkans. These are the missing links that we have been missing for at least for the last 30 years. Only in the last two years, we have approved 40 projects with the overall amount of investments of EUR 5.7 billion for the Western Balkans.
The implementation of the Plan will create also opportunities for European companies. They can participate in transport, they can participate in energy, or digital infrastructure projects. Furthermore, our commercial Banks, our Investment Funds, and the financial sector can also benefit from the EU financing because we need the European Financial Institutions to help us create a bigger leverage when it comes to investments to guarantee that aim to supporting not only large-scale projects, but also the fine fabric of the economy which are the SMEs. To help the Western Balkans to create this fine fabric of the economy.
To reflect on the title of this conference, this is a Plan which is actually designed to bring “Growth and Integration” to the Western Balkans and of course, to the EU as well. For its success, therefore, we greatly rely on our Member States that they invest, bring the know-how – as it was also mentioned by Deputy Prime Minister Tajani – and link the region also in value chains to the European economy.
Due to the COVID-19 crisis and the Russian war, our supply chains are under pressure. Transport costs from overseas are much higher than ever before and supply sources are much less reliable than ever before. Shortening and simplifying the value chains through reshoring or nearshoring the production and investing in the Western Balkans therefore can be a viable alternative. There is no better place to make the case for this than Trieste.
II. Second, we are also facing sustained challenges with the Western Balkans. We have seen with the COVID, now we see this with the energy crisis. And we are not solving our problems alone. Because solving our problems alone in the COVID crisis would have meant nothing if we do not help the Western Balkans also to address the COVID crisis. Because we are in this together. We are sharing a continent and more and more we are sharing an economy, and more and more we are sharing a common society. And this is why we have adopted an Energy Support Package for the Western Balkans of EUR 1 billion to help them to face the energy crisis. The crisis of course means also opportunities. With this we would like to of course bring immediate budget support of EUR 500 million to mitigate the energy price increase and also to have short-term and mid-term support to reduce the Russian energy dependence of the region. But it also means that we can change the reality on the ground. Because through financing gas and electricity interconnectors, renewable energy development, energy efficiency projects, and through the investment into at least one new LNG terminal on the Western Balkans, meaning the Adria, we can change the reality on the ground, and we can create the basics of a new economy, and we can create also the basics for a more secure Western Balkans for Europe and for the Western Balkans.
III. This plan was announced at the first EU – Western-Balkans Summit held outside the EU, in Tirana, a city that is dear to the hearts of the Italians. It was an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment and showcase of course our Economic and Investment Plan and to witness the signature of the Telekom operators including in our own roaming system the whole of the Western Balkans.
