Do not prevent the Western Balkans from accessing EU funds!

At today’s joint meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets and Committee on Foreign Affairs, the issue of the establishment of the Western Balkans Reform and Growth Facility was discussed. In his speech, MEP Andor Deli, a Fidesz member of the Committee on Budgets, stressed that the European Parliament’s draft report would propose disproportionate and excessive conditionality, which could make it more difficult for candidate countries to access EU funds. MEP Kinga Gál, President of the Fidesz delegation to the European Parliament, recalled that accelerating the accession process of the Western Balkan countries is of strategic importance to the EU. Therefore, the financial instrument should be made available to them as soon as possible, once the appropriate conditions have been met. 

“EU enlargement must be accelerated, and the EU must strengthen its political and economic influence in the Western Balkans. The recently presented Growth Facility instrument provides an excellent opportunity to do this. However, for the enlargement to gain new momentum, legislation must be rational with proportionate and workable rules and conditions. At the same time, the European Parliament’s draft report would propose disproportionate and excessive conditionality that could make it more difficult for candidate countries to access EU funds. This could encourage candidate countries in the Western Balkans to seek other sources of funding outside the EU, which runs counter to the EU’s stated ambition to increase its influence in the Western Balkans”, MEP Deli stressed.

“It is essential that we do not create insurmountable obstacles for the Western Balkans, and the Commission’s criteria are already strict enough. The conditionality of the assistance should be aligned with the criteria of the pre-accession and neighbourhood programmes”, said MEP Kinga Gál. She stressed that “the loss of time in this case could also be a political loss, so it is important that the necessary decisions for the creation of the instrument are taken in the European Parliament during this institutional cycle”.