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The Ukraine Facility supports Ukraine, its recovery and its path to EU accession, allocating up to €50 billion for 2024 to 2027. Regulation (EU) 2024/792 establishing the Ukraine Facility was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in February 2024. The EU budget is supposed to finance the Facility's €17 billion in grants and guarantee its €33 billion in loans. Additional financing is expected to come from frozen Russian assets. In the negotiations with the Council, the European Parliament ...

A multi-ethnic country, Montenegro is composed of Montenegrins (43 %), Serbs (32 %), Bosniaks (7.8 %) and Albanians (5 %). In a May 2006 referendum, 55.5 % of the electorate voted for independence. Public opinion surveys show that almost 80 % of Montenegrins are in favour of joining the EU. On 2 April 2023, after securing 59 % of votes in a presidential election run-off, Montenegro's former Economy Minister Jakov Milatović declared victory over the incumbent, Milo Đukanović, who had been president ...

The revised enlargement methodology adopted in February 2020, and a new 'gradual approach' endorsed by the European Council in June 2022, are at the heart of EU accession negotiations with the Western Balkan countries and those countries' accession-related reforms. As the region's six countries differ in population size, political systems and history, their reform agenda and accession tempo also vary. With a budget of €14.2 billion for 2021 2027, the EU Instrument for pre-Accession Assistance (IPA ...

The European Political Community (EPC) is a new 'platform for political coordination' (European Council) initially proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron. The Presidents of the European Council, Charles Michel, and European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, have both also supported such a proposal. The inaugural meeting of the EPC was held in Prague on 6 October. The 'EU+ summit' was hosted by the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU and attended by 43 national delegations from the EU- ...

Although European integration of the Western Balkans and Türkiye is still at a standstill, the war in Ukraine and the challenging geopolitical environment have lent new impetus to the enlargement process, in an attempt to secure its continuity, consistency, credibility and impact. In June 2022, EU leaders endorsed the 'European perspective' of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. The Western Balkan countries' prospect of a European future had meanwhile already been endorsed at summits in Thessaloniki (in ...

This paper has been produced by the Ex-post Evaluation Unit of the Directorate for Impact Assessment and European Added Value, within the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) of the Secretariat of the European Parliament, as a regional evaluation in parallel to the EPRS 2022 Peace and Security Outlook. It has been drafted as a contribution to the Normandy World Peace Forum taking place in September 2022. The paper provides the background to EU relations with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine ...

Serbia, a country with a population of 6.9 million, has been advancing towards EU accession since 2012, when it received candidate country status. Despite some progress, Serbia faces three major issues: improving internal political dialogue, reaching a comprehensive legally binding normalisation agreement with Kosovo* and ensuring better alignment with EU foreign policy. The Parliament's position on the European Commission's 2021 annual report on Serbia is expected to be voted in plenary in July ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), with a population of 3.8 million, became independent from the former Yugoslavia on 3 March 1992, following a referendum that was boycotted by ethnic Serbs. Bosnia and Herzegovina was offered an EU membership perspective during the EU-Western Balkans summit in Thessaloniki (2003), subsequently restated in Sofia (2018), Zagreb (2020), Brdo (2021) and, most recently, Brussels (2022). The Parliament is expected to vote on the European Commission's 2021 annual report on BiH ...

The six Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo,* Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) are all countries with substantial economic catch-up potential. The EU-led Berlin Process estimated an annual investment need of some €7.7 billion, which would provide the region with an additional 1 % GDP growth and a positive employment effect of up to 200 000 people. However, quality investments are scarce, or often attached to political, environmental and social conditionalities ...

On 23 June 2022, for the first time since the start of Russia's war on Ukraine, the Heads of State or Government of the EU and of the six Western Balkan countries will meet for a leaders' meeting in Brussels. The discussion will focus on enlargement, energy, security and defence, and youth. Discussion of Emmanuel Macron's 'European Political Community' proposal is not on the agenda, but it could come up during the debate.