Nouveau plan de croissance et facilité pour les réformes et la croissance pour les Balkans occidentaux

Background

The Commission is proposing a new growth plan for the Western Balkans based on four pillars, aimed at:

1. Enhancing economic integration with the European Union’s single market, subject to the Western Balkans aligning with single market rules and opening the relevant sectors and areas to all their neighbours at the same time, in line with the Common Regional Market;
2. Boosting economic integration within the Western Balkans through the Common Regional Market, based on EU rules and standards;
3. Accelerating fundamental reforms, including on the fundamentals cluster, supporting the Western Balkans' path towards EU membership, improving sustainable economic growth including through attracting foreign investments and strengthening regional stability;
4. Increasing financial assistance to support the reforms through a Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans, a new instrument worth EUR 6 billion in non-repayable support and loan support, with payment conditioned on the Western Balkans’ partners fulfilling fundamental reforms, and in particular specific socio-economic reforms.

This new growth plan builds on the existing enlargement methodology and creates a package of mutually reinforcing measures that could multiply the potential benefit of each measure. It also provides for more incentives and for the benefits of integration ahead of EU accession, thereby aiming to speed up accession negotiations. Finally, in view of ensuring a level playing field amongst enlargement countries, it aims to progressively add further opportunities for the Western Balkans to those available under the existing Stabilisation and Association Agreements (SAAs).

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) was asked by the Commission to produce an opinion on the new plan. It aims to look at the plan from the civil society perspective and explore means of concrete inclusion of social partners and civil society organisations in its implementation.