TIRANA – Access to the EU budget for the Western Balkans has remained limited and highly disproportionate to their level of market integration, with allocations largely unchanged over the last three budget cycles. This point was discussed during the panel “Challenging the ‘lack of administrative capacity’ narrative” at the Civil Society Forum (CSF).
Panelists believed that Western Balkans and EU actors have advocated for increased funding for the region to support economic convergence and meet EU criteria. However, this change requires allocating larger sums to candidate countries in a context of growing needs in the Union budget.
Furthermore, it was mentioned that Western Balkan countries must be ready to carry out mature projects and ensure their implementation while learning from previous enlargements in order to better understand how to address bottlenecks in terms of absorption capacities and to rationalize EU financing to meet membership requirements.
Simonida Kacarska, director of the European Policy Institute in Skopje, stressed the need for deeper dialogue on the single market. This dialogue should focus on issues such as access to EU funds and increasing financial support for the region’s transformation.
According to her, civil society organizations discussed ways to better use existing funds and increase their availability. She stressed the importance of an inclusive process when planning and implementing pre-accession funds.
Kacarska stressed the need to involve and involve all stakeholders in the process while improving transparency in the allocation of European funds.
In their recommendations, CSOs call on the European Commission to present a formal plan to strengthen pre-accession assistance during the mid-term review of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MMF). They recommended a review of the arrangements for implementing pre-accession aid, in particular by facilitating decentralized management of aid.
Tanja Misčevićthe Minister of European Integration of Serbia, stressed the need for more details on the growth plan for the Western Balkans, announced by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Drita Abdiu Halili, North Macedonia’s State Secretary and Deputy Chief Negotiator to the EU stressed that Western Balkan countries should increase transparency, include all relevant stakeholders and communicate with the general public on European integration and EU funds.
“We need more structured dialogue and earlier engagement of stakeholders in the programming process. We also need to strengthen regional cooperation because we face many common problems, topics and challenges,” she assessed.
Economist Amber Maucorps from the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies suggested that the experience of Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia in absorbing EU funds could be very useful to candidates from the Western Balkans. She stressed that their experience shows that capacity is crucial to maximize the use of available EU funds.
Anja Bosilkova-Antovska, Head of Advocacy at the Balkan Civil Development Network, spoke about the importance of involving CSOs and their expertise in IPA programming. She stressed that there is not enough political will in the region to involve CSOs in these processes, adding that the EU should demand greater involvement.
“Western Balkan countries may look good on paper when it comes to legislation, but their implementation is weak. In practice, there is also a deterioration in cooperation with CSOs. Even in North Macedonia, where cooperation was strong, there is an increasingly dismissive approach towards CSOs and a lack of substantive dialogue,” she said.
Damir Miljevic, a member of the RESET board of directors, acknowledged that there was a lack of transparency and information in the entire process. He stressed the need to finance sustainable projects, particularly in the areas of renewable energies and energy transition in the region.
