Skopje, 22 January, 2024
Dear representatives of the media,
Dear citizens,
Today we are in Skopje in the Western Balkan Six format at the invitation of the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovacevski, to discuss the European Union Growth Plan.
The Growth Plan aims to provide us, the Six Western Balkans, with the European Union for integration and membership there through the benefits of the Single Market before membership.
We have welcomed this plan as it does not slow down our membership but accelerates it by increasing the speed of reforms and convergence between the European Union and the Western Balkans.
So, if the Berlin Process consisted of the Common Regional Market, the Growth Plan consists of access and participation in the Single Market of the European Union.
With the current level of economic growth, the average gross domestic product per inhabitant in purchasing power in the Western Balkans is somewhere between 30% and 50% of the European Union average. The growth plan together with the Common Regional Market could increase the economic growth by 10%. This will be achieved based on the rules and standards of the European Union as well as conditional on respect and implementation of the values of the European Union. Part of the Growth Plan is the Common Regional Market, within the framework of the Berlin Process, which aims to remove barriers to the four freedoms; freedom of people, goods, service and capital.
We all remember how 10 years ago the former President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, declared that during his 5-year term there will be no expansion of the European Union and from this lack of sense of urgency for expansion of the Union the European was born as a response to the Berlin Process. Meanwhile, a decade later, now at the end of this mandate of the current President of the European Commission, Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen, we have the Growth Plan which will bring 6 billion euros of financial support to the six countries of the Western Balkans that want to enter the European Union and in which case financial support depends on work and performance separately, where if the states in the Berlin process achieve something positive, it is automatically transferred to the Growth Plan. Meanwhile, if the states in the Berlin Process block each other, this has no effect on the Growth Plan because based on this plan that was devised by Mrs. President von der Leyen, the states can only block them
selves, but not each other.
Today, as the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, we will submit a list of reforms for the Growth Plan to the European Union. This list aims at further reforming the public administration and advancing the management of public finances. It attaches particular importance to the green agenda and digitalization, the development of the private sector, investments and exports, as well as the strengthening of fundamental rights.
We are also preparing an indicative list of projects aimed at closing infrastructural gaps and promoting economic development that will be financed through the Reform and Growth Fund, thus accelerating growth and convergence in the European Union.
As we have witnessed in the last three years with the improvement of the democratic and economic indicators, Kosovo is very ready as well as interested in reforms.
We believe that membership of the European Union should be merit-driven and value-based. This Growth Plan is not only an opportunity for reforms, but also a chance for cooperation and closer regional integration between the six countries of the Western Balkans.
Therefore, we must be constructive in our engagement and aware of the transformative power of our decisions. And for the Western Balkan region to be economically integrated and for the citizens to come closer, it is necessary for peace with the rule of law to prevail and security threats to cease.
Deeper integration and increased flow of people and goods requires trust and mutual recognition between states, i.e. countries, institutions and people.
Membership of the European Union is essentially a choice. There are countries and peoples who are determined not to join the European Union. But membership in the European Union is the goal of our state, of the institutions of the system, but also of the population of our country with a support which is somewhere around 94% according to all the measurements of public opinion that are done regularly over many years.
And in a liberal democracy, the government’s power is limited, as is known, by the rule of law, while the freedom and rights of individuals are protected by the constitution. Therefore, the determination for the European Union simultaneously represents a strategic choice of the leadership of a country, a choice already made by the Republic of Kosovo.
Our task is to carry out the reforms and fulfill the conditions, while the European Union’s is to evaluate on the basis of merits and take care to preserve the fundamental values of the European Union.
I thank you for your attention and now I am here with my advisers from the Prime Minister, with the Minister of Finance, Labor and Transfers, Hekuran Murati, as well as with our ambassador of the Republic of Kosovo in North Macedonia, His Excellency, Florian Qehaja , and we will be able to answer your questions.
Last modified: January 24, 2024