Europe to offer new growth plan for the Western Balkans

(15 Oct 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tirana, Albania - 15 October 2023
++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
1. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama arriving for briefing
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President:
“I wanted to focus (on) today, and that’s what we discussed, the new growth plan for the Western Balkans because here we are moving towards a new phase of action. This plan has the potential, if we implement it rightly, to double the size of your economy still in this decade, to drive growth and convergence. The principle is that in certain specific areas, you will have access to the single market. For these reforms are necessary, and the reforms are accompanied by investment. So, it opens the door to the single market, to the common regional market of the Western Balkan countries and this will, of course, be then underpinned (static audio from source) by the financial investment, investment plus reforms that are necessary.”
3. Mid of camera
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President:
“With reforms, investment is also coming. So new trade routes, new trade opportunities, business opportunities, one point. Reforms requirements in the specific Western Balkan countries, the second one. And the third one is investment that specifically comes to support these reforms. This is basically the essence of the growth plan.”
5. Mid of cameras
6. Close of Von der Leyen during briefing
7. SOUNDBITE (Albanian) Edi Rama, Albanian Prime Minister:
“(It is not like) a warm money sack that is to be distributed. That is a relation which, yes, it is a new funding opportunity for us, and we should make our home work in the best way possible so that we can get the most of funding in those directions.”
8. Von der Leyen and Rama leaving briefing

STORYLINE:
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlined on Sunday a new growth plan for the Western Balkans that would open new trade routes in specific areas of the EU’s common market for the region's countries.

“New trade routes, new trade opportunities, business opportunities, one point. Reform requirements in the specific Balkan countries, the second one. And the third one is investment that specifically comes to support these reforms. This is basically the essence of the growth plan,” Von der Leyen said.

“This plan has the potential, if we implement it rightly, to double the size of this economy still in this decade, to drive growth and convergence,” she added as she stood alongside Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama during a news conference in the Albanian capital.

Von der Leyen was in Tirana on Sunday ahead of a meeting of leaders from the European Union and the Western Balkans.

At the summit on Monday discussion are set to be held on the path to membership in the bloc for the six countries of the region.

The main topics at the annual talks — called the Berlin Process — will be integrating the Western Balkans into a single market and supporting their green and digital transformation.

The six Western Balkan countries are at different stages of integration into the bloc.

Serbia and Montenegro were the first Western Balkan countries to launch membership negotiations a few years ago, followed by Albania and Macedonia last year, while Bosnia and Kosovo have only begun the first step of the integration process.

Russia's war in Ukraine has put integration of the Western Balkans into the EU at the top of the 27-nation bloc’s agenda.
AP video shot by: Erion Xhabafti
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