Kosovo and Serbia will not be allocated any money for now in the pre-financing phase of the European Union's Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, European Commission spokesman Guillaume Mercier said on Thursday.
"I can confirm that at this stage there is no pre-financing for Serbia and Kosovo," Mercier told the media.
Mercier said that an assessment has not yet been made of whether Kosovo and Serbia have met the prerequisite to begin benefiting from the 6 billion euro Growth Plan.
A prerequisite for Kosovo and Serbia is their commitment to normalizing relations between them, including implementing obligations from the dialogue facilitated by the EU.
But recently, Kosovo and Serbia have deepened their differences, banning visits by each other's officials to their respective countries. Kosovo has also accused Serbia of having "no interest" in normalizing relations with it after it strongly protested Kenya's decision to recognize Kosovo's independence.
"At this stage I cannot confirm whether the precondition has been met or not. It will be explained when a decision is made regarding pre-financing," Mercier explained.
His announcement comes days after Albania and North Macedonia became the first countries in the region to benefit from pre-financing payments from the Western Balkans Growth Plan.
On March 25, Albania was allocated 64.5 million euros, of which 30 million as a loan to support reforms, and 34.5 million euros through the Balkan Investment Fund for infrastructure.
A day earlier, the EU released funds to North Macedonia worth 52.2 million euros, of which 24.5 million will go to the state budget for reforms, and 28 million for infrastructure projects.
The overall Growth Plan package for the six Western Balkan countries - Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro - amounts to 6 billion euros and covers the period from 2024 to 2027.
Of this amount, 2 billion euros are non-repayable EU grants, while the rest is in the form of favorable loans.
The goal of this ambitious EU financial package is to help economic growth in this region and, in this way, accelerate its European integration process.
According to an unofficial estimate, Kosovo could benefit from over 880 million euros from this package. Over 250 million would be allocated as non-refundable money, while the rest would be in the form of soft loans. The 7% that would be paid as pre-financing would amount to around 61 million euros.
Kosovo cannot receive these funds without ratifying the loan agreement in the Assembly.
It is awaiting the certification of the results of the February 9 parliamentary elections, in order to constitute the new Assembly.
Kosovo's Deputy Prime Minister, Besnik Bislimi, had said that Kosovo is expected to benefit from 950 million euros from this plan - the largest fund ever allocated by the bloc for it, in a relatively short period.
Serbia would be allocated a total of 1.58 billion euros, while the first payment would be 111 million euros./ REL (A2 Televizion)
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