After the Western Balkans summit, which took place in Vienna on August 27, it has been announced that European institutions will grant around 200 million euro for 10 transport and energy infrastructure projects in six Western Balkans countries.
The total value of the agreed projects is around 600 million euro and they are to be conducted in Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and Bosnia.
The projects will be co-financed under the 2015 Instrument for Pre-Accession programme, IPA, and Western Balkans Investments Framework and by European financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, EBRD, and the German government-owned development bank, KfW.
Among the pre-identified projects are Bosanski Šamac/Šamac – Sar rail section (on the Mediterranean Corridor of TEN-T), the Niš – Dimitrovgrad – Serbia/Bulgaria border rail section (on the TEN-T Core Network), Belgrade – Novi Sad – Serbia/Hungary border, Belgrade – Niš, Serbia/the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia border, Beljakovce – the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia/Bulgaria border, Belgrade – (Vrbnica) – Bar, Kraljevo – Pristina – Gorce Petrov rail sections (on the Orient / East-Med Corridor).
The three core network corridors to be extended for the Western Balkans as well as priority projects along sections of these corridors and on other important sections of the core network were pre-identified for possible EU funding over the next six years.
The summit in Vienna is a part of the Berlin Process, a five-year process started last August and marked by yearly summits in order to underline the EU’s commitment to enlargement.
The focus of the initiative is on the six Balkan countries that are not yet EU members: Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. The next summit is scheduled for France next year.
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