The European Union said on Thursday that it will not allocate "pre-financing" funds for Kosovo and Serbia under the Western Balkans Growth Plan at this time.

European Commission spokesperson Guillaume Mercier, during a media briefing on Thursday, stated that the process for Kosovo and Serbia is ongoing, and the prerequisite for receiving these funds is that both countries engage constructively in the dialogue for normalizing their relations.

He emphasized that Albania and North Macedonia have already received the initial pre-financing amount of 7 percent, which is worth 64 million euros.

"I can confirm that, at this stage, there is no pre-financing for Serbia and Kosovo. Earlier this week, and last week, pre-financing was done for North Macedonia and Albania. But the process is ongoing for Kosovo and Serbia," he said.

According to him, at this stage, he cannot confirm whether the precondition for Kosovo and Serbia regarding the normalization of relations has been fulfilled.

"In the procedures for the Growth Plan, there is a precondition regarding Serbia and Kosovo, which is to engage constructively in the dialogue for the normalization of relations. At this stage, I cannot confirm whether the precondition has been fulfilled or not. It will be explained once a decision is made regarding pre-financing," added the EU spokesperson.

In addition, for Kosovo to benefit from EU funds, it must ratify the agreement with the EU in the Assembly.

Due to the elections on February 9th, the Assembly has not yet been constituted, and the new government has not been formed.

Kosovo is expected to receive around 880 million euros from the EU Growth Plan for the Western Balkans.

In total, this plan for the region is valued at 6 billion euros, of which 2 billion are grants from the EU, non-repayable, while the rest are in the form of favorable loans.