Balkan Leaders Discuss Energy, Transport at Summit

The Western Balkans Investment Summit in London on Monday brought together the prime ministers of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia with investors to discuss the development of transport links, energy projects and privatization.

“We are encouraged by the fact that all of the region’s economies grew last year. And our economists expect growth to rise further in most Western Balkans countries in 2016, albeit still at levels below their potential,” said the EBRD’s president, Suma Chakrabarti.

Chakrabarti praised what he called “a reform momentum across the region”, with Montenegro advancing along its EU path, Serbia restructuring its public companies, Albania continuing a programme of modernization and Bosnia and Herzegovina starting to implement a reform agenda prepared with the help of the European Commission.

The Balkan prime ministers expressed determination to continue their progress towards the EU.

“I don’t agree with [London mayor] Boris Johnson that the EU has become very boring,” said Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, referring to Johnson’s decision to campaign for Britain to vote to leave the EU in a referendum in June.

“Regardless of all challenges, Western Balkans countries believe in a united Europe,” added his Montenegrin counterpart Milo Djukanovic.

The main part of the summit saw Balkan leaders concentrating on major infrastructure and energy investments, including the Nis-Pristina highway and an electricity transmission line between Macedonia and Albania.

“We don’t just expect money, we need political support for reforms, education and the creation of a unique market,” Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic said.

The vision of integrated market in the Balkans came a step closer, the regional leaders argued, as Serbia and Slovenia confirmed their intention to join SEE Link, an EBRD-supported regional network for trading securities that will help to integrate domestic stock markets. SEE Link was started by the Bulgarian, Macedonian and Croatian stock exchanges.

The EBRD is one of the largest investors in the Western Balkans and last year alone the bank invested around a billion euro in various projects from energy efficiency to infrastructure and from support for financial institutions to agribusiness.

Its first Western Balkans summit was held two years ago. Participants included government officials, policy-makers and experts as well as leading domestic and international business representatives.

Source Birn

August 31, 2015

by AEA in News

Europe to Fund Balkan Transport, Energy Projects

Following the Vienna summit, the Western Balkans has been promised 200 million euro in co-financing for 10 transport and energy projects, to improve growth and energy security.

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.

The Western Balkans Investments Framework was developed jointly with the European Commission, the EBRD and the Council of Europe development bank, as well as by EU member states and Western Balkan countries themselves.

Among the projects to be developed with EU financial help are the Albania-Macedonia power interconnection and the grid section of Trans-Balkan Electricity Corridor in Montenegro and Serbia.

Twenty-four different other infrastructure projects were confirmed as of great importance for the region.

Completion of these projects should stimulate GDP growth by 1 per cent in each Western Balkan country and create around 200,000 new jobs in total, Serbian media reported.

Among the so-called “pre-identified” projects are the highway from Nis in Serbia to the Albanian coastal city of Durres through to the Kosovo capital of Pristina and the highway from Croatia to the Greek border via Montenegro and Albania.

The EU will also co-finance the Bosnia-Croatia road interconnection on the Mediterranean corridor as well as the rail interconnection between Serbia and Macedonia.

Western Balkans officials voiced satisfaction with the offer.

Milo Djukanovic, the Montenegrin Prime Minister, said his country stood to get 45 million euro from the EU for improving rail transport and electric transmission.

He said that without economic support from European institutions, the Western Balkans could not truly develop and provide a better life for its citizens.

“I consider this a very valuable contribution of the EU to the further improvement of transport and railway infrastructure,” Djukanovic said.

Mijat Lakicevic, a Belgrade-based economist, said it was a good news that the EU will co-finance some projects since regional transport infrastructure is worse now than it was 20 or 30 years ago. “Infrastructure is a precondition for development,” Lakicevic told BIRN.

On the other hand, he warned that 200 million euro was not enough to go round the entire region.

“We also have a problem with the quality of proposed projects and the region is already faced with unsuccessful and unfinished projects,” Lakicevic said.

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.