Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti attends a meeting of the Western Balkans leaders in Skopje, North Macedonia, January 22, 2024. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski
SKOPJE (Reuters) - The European Union's 6-billion euro growth plan for the Western Balkans is a potential "game changer" that could double the size of regional economies in the next decade, an EU official said on Monday.
Leaders of the six Western Balkan countries -- Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia -- met on Monday in Skopje to discuss reforms needed to access the EU growth plan presented last October.
"Today the leaders will be discussing the common regional market and the integration of the region progressively in our internal market, which is a huge driver for growth," said Gert Jan Koopman, the European Commission's Director-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations.
"The growth plan is a potential a game changer and could double the size of your economies in the next decade," he said at the start of the meeting.
Having been promised EU membership years ago, the accession process across the region has slowed to a crawl, mainly due to reluctance among the bloc's 27 members and a lack of reform throughout the region.
Serbia and Montenegro were the first in the region to launch EU membership talks, and Albania and North Macedonia began talks with Brussels in 2022. Bosnia and Kosovo lag far behind their neighbours in the process.
"The growth plan means 6 billion euros for the whole region and the amount of the money we will get depends on the good works that we do," Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said ahead of the meeting.
The EU growth plan for the region would include the opening of its common market to the Western Balkan countries in areas such as free movement of goods and services, transport and energy.
But in return, the countries need to implement reforms and resolve all outstanding issues with their neighbours.
The EU's aim is to give greater stability to a region that emerged from the bloody 1990s break-up of Yugoslavia but is still racked by tensions.
The six leaders will present a joint declaration at a press conference in North Macedonia's capital Skopje later on Monday.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci and Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Ros Russell)
