Novakovic: Greater focus of the new European Commission on the Western Balkans; Growth Plan crucial for the region

Senior associate at the Center for International and Security Affairs (ISAC Fund), Igor Novakovic, assesses that the meeting of the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with the leaders of the Western Balkans shows that the region will be a greater focus for the new composition of the European Commission, with the Growth Plan being one of the key mechanisms for the process of joining the Union.

"We have two elements here. The first is that Ursula von der Leyen, that is, the previous iteration of the European Commission, already announced earlier this year a greater focus on the Western Balkans with the Growth Plan, which is often described as the first step toward further rapprochement of the Western Balkans to the EU. So, accession not only through the enlargement process, meaning negotiations between the European Union and the Western Balkan countries, but also through a special plan that would enable greater financial assistance, primarily for infrastructure projects," Novakovic told Kosovo Online.

He explains that the new European administration will also focus on old problems – preventing the possible spillover of conflict from Eastern Europe into the Balkans.

"The new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas, has already informally announced that the Western Balkans will be a priority, especially in security terms, in the context of everything happening in Eastern Europe and the danger of potential conflict spillover into this region," Novakovic emphasized.

He believes that tensions, as well as the deadlock in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, will undoubtedly be one of the topics, but on the sidelines of this summit.

"I don't expect this to be the main topic of the summit, but surely there will be separate meetings with leaders on the sidelines to discuss the situation. We saw that last week and the week before, Lajcak was in Belgrade and Pristina, and the question is whether anything can be achieved through official dialogue. My impression is that a new reformatting of everything is needed. We have already heard that Kallas herself is very interested in issues related to the dialogue," Novakovic stressed.

He considers the key topic of the meeting to be the pace of project submission and the problems in implementing the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans.

"In some cases, there is a complete stalemate, such as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where there is no real consensus at the national level regarding the Growth Plan, as both the central government and the governments of the entities, cantons, and the Brcko District need to agree. This shows that internal processes need to be politically pushed forward in all the six Western Balkan countries to improve the impact that the Growth Plan is supposed to have," Novakovic said.

As a positive example, he cites the announcement from Serbia and Montenegro to use those funds for the renovation of the Belgrade-Bar railway.