Kosovo will wait until the new Parliament is constituted to receive the first tranche of 61 million euros from the European Union, within the framework of the Growth Plan for the Western Balkan countries.

The disbursement of pre-financing funds for Kosovo is linked to the approval of two international agreements in the Assembly, which cannot happen now that the legislature has ended and the country holds elections on February 9.

The Kosovo Government says that as soon as the agreements are approved in the Assembly, the funds will be disbursed and that the delays are not related to the measures that the EU has imposed on Kosovo. 

The Growth Plan is the EU's new framework for accelerating reforms for European integration across the region, combining reforms with direct financial contributions from EU funds to the budgets of beneficiary countries and investment projects. With the implementation of these reforms, Kosovo will benefit from up to 882.6 million euros of EU funds. Of this total, 253.3 million euros are grants, while the remaining 629.3 million euros are long-term loans.

Klisman Kadiu, advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, Besnik Bislimi, tells KosovaPress that the European Union has not executed payments to any country in the region, as none of them has managed to approve the agreements with the EU in their assemblies.

"All countries in the region, including Kosovo, must sign and approve in Parliament two agreements for this instrument to enter into force and then the transfer of the first tranche to take place. These are: the instrument agreement and the loan agreement. The first was signed by the Prime Minister and the European Commission and was sent to the Parliament as a draft law in December, while the second agreement was recently sent by the EC, in January of this year. No country in the region has yet managed to approve these two agreements, and as a result, payments have not been made to any country in the region yet. In the case of Kosovo, these two agreements will be approved after the constitution of the new Parliament and then the funds can be disbursed.", He says.

On the other hand, European Union spokesperson Annita Hipper tells KosovaPress that the European Union's Growth Plan will bring the economies of the Western Balkans closer to the European Union.

According to her, the European Commission has assessed Kosovo's reform agenda and concluded that it is in line with the objectives and requirements of this institution.

She adds that they are now finalizing the last procedural steps and that the pre-financing funds will be executed in 2025, after the ratification of the agreements.

"Kosovo submitted its reform agenda to the Commission in July, covering reforms in the fundamental and socio-economic areas. The Commission has assessed the Reform Agenda and concluded that it is in line with the objectives and requirements of the Facility (Reform and Growth). The Reform Agenda was adopted on 23 October 2024 by a Commission Implementing Decision, following a positive opinion from the Member States. Kosovo has requested the release of pre-financing of up to 7% of the total amount foreseen under this facility. The Commission and Kosovo are now finalising the procedural steps, which should allow the release of the pre-financing to take place as soon as possible in 2025, pending Kosovo's ratification process.", she emphasizes.

However, professor of European integration, Dritëro Arifi, emphasizes that the pre-financing funds were pledged to be disbursed in December of last year, however, he adds that for technical reasons they may have been delayed by the European Union.

Despite this, he emphasizes that he expects any government after the February 9 elections to secure two-thirds of the votes in the Assembly to approve these agreements.

"The plan for distributing the funds has been delayed for many technical reasons of the European Commission and will probably now be delayed due to the elections in Kosovo. However, after the elections, whichever government is in power will receive the financial resources and invest them in the necessary reforms," ​​Arifi declares.

The Government of Kosovo in October 2024 approved the Reform Agenda under the European Union Instrument for Reforms and Economic Growth for the Western Balkans, which was also approved by the European Commission./E.Zeqiri