The countries of the European Union have approved on Friday the reform agendas of the five countries of the Western Balkans, which have presented them as a condition to benefit from the package of the Growth Plan, worth 6 billion euros.

The IPA Commission (Instruments of Pre-Accession) of the EU gave its consent to the reform agendas of Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia.

The only country in the region, which still has to wait for the approval of its agenda, is Bosnia and Herzegovina, since the document that this country sent to the EU was not complete and did not address all the suggestions given by The European Commission has announced the Hungarian presidency of the European Union.

Now, the Balkan countries are one step away from receiving the first payments from this billion-dollar plan. The European Commission is expected to approve the final decision on the implementation of payments on October 16, and in this way it will be ready to make the first payments from this package for these countries.

But before these payments are made, the beneficiary countries must sign the agreements and ratify them in their national parliaments, because two billion euros will be non-refundable money, while the rest will be soft loans.

With this package, the EU aims to help economic growth in the countries of the region and, in this way, accelerate the process of their European integration.

According to an unofficial estimate, Kosovo will be able to benefit over 880 million euros. Over 250 million euros would be allocated to Kosovo as non-refundable money, while the rest in the form of affordable loans. Consequently, Kosovo would be paid 7% of the funds as "pre-financing", which amounts to about 61 million euros. /REL