The European Parliament has given its green light to the next generation of the pre-accession funding instrument that will help seven countries better prepare to meet the obligations of future EU membership. This is the final step of the adoption process for this instrument, through which the EU will provide support to key political, institutional, social and economic reforms.
Worth €14.2 billion, the 2021-2027 Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA III) will support the implementation of these EU-related reforms in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey.
Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, commented: “Together, we have shaped an instrument that has great potential and sends a strong signal that the European Union is committed to support the enlargement region. IPA III is definitely an investment in the future.”
IPA III has a strategic and performance-based design with no country-specific allocation from the outset, and will focus on the rule of law and the respect of fundamental values, strengthening democratic institutions and public administration reform, promoting economic governance and reforms for competitiveness. It will also tackle sustainable economic recovery, energy supply, transport, environment and climate change, and digital transformation.
A modern and digitalised rail network was recognised as a key priority of the Dedication to Rail signed by ministers in charge of transport in the region at the Western Balkans Rail Summit, held in Belgrade on 13 September. The event was organised by the Transport Community Permanent Secretariat, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), under the auspices of Serbia’s Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure.
The summit gathered ministers in charge of transport from the Western Balkans and neighbouring countries with representatives of the European Commission and rail professionals for discussions on how to advance regional and European transport policy and contribute to building a digitalised and sustainable rail transport system in the region. Commitments were made on a number of priorities including re-establishing direct intercity train links connecting the region and the EU; enhancing digitalisation of railway systems to connect and exchange data for cross-border passenger and freight transport; increasing safety of level crossings; and opening rail markets.
The summit was organised to coincide with the arrival of the Connecting Europe Express train as part of the European Year of Rail. This is part of the European Green Deal plan to make the EU economy sustainable by achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
The Connecting Europe Express, a special train put together as part of the European Year of Rail 2021, pulled out of Lisbon train station on 2 September. It stopped in Belgrade on 13 September and in Skopje on 14 September. The train is scheduled to visit more than 100 towns and cities during its five-week journey, before arriving in Paris on 7 October. By setting off from Lisbon and ending in Paris, with a notable stop in Ljubljana, the train connects the Portuguese, Slovenian and French Presidencies of the Council of the EU.
Along the route, events are planned to welcome the train at railway stations across Europe. Rail enthusiasts can also follow debates happening on board as well as conferences on EU infrastructure policy and the role of the Trans-European Transport Network that will be livestreamed from Lisbon, Bucharest, Berlin and Bettembourg via an event website.
The Connecting Europe Express is the result of unique cooperation between the European Commission, the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies, European rail operators, infrastructure managers and numerous other partners at EU and local level.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) – the EU’s lending arm – has signed a €1.2 million cooperation agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska, to support water and sanitation services. With expert technical assistance services, the project aims to upgrade the quality of water and wastewater services, provide services to unconnected households, and improve living conditions for over 216,000 people.
The investments are part of the EU-funded projects approved under the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) in 2019 for water and sanitation (WATSAN) programmes in both entities of BiH: the Federation (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS). The total investment value for both WATSAN projects is more than €215 million, with the EU and bilateral donors providing €14.4 million in grants through the WBIF, complementing €110 million in EIB loans.
The WATSAN programmes were launched in 2008 with the purpose of assisting 50 small and medium-sized municipalities in the FBiH and RS in developing sustainable water and sanitation services, in accordance with EU accession conditions.
The best three stories from Albania in 2020 have been recognised with EU awards for investigative journalism. On Tuesday, journalists Luljeta Progni, Geri Emiri, Anila Hoxha and Esmeralda Keta were selected as this year’s winners for their stories which variously covered the abuse of workers’ rights in Albania, corruption in construction, and wrongdoings behind the curtain of the pandemic.
The jury was headed by journalist and BBC producer Albana Kasapi. The other two members were Idro Seferi, a Deutsche Welle and Swiss TV correspondent, and Elira Canga, a journalist working in media development.
Opening the awards ceremony, the director of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) Hub, Marija Ristić, stressed the importance of awards like this in recognising journalists who work hard to deliver pieces of real public importance. In presenting the awards, the head of the Political Section of the European Union Delegation in Albania, Alexis Hupin, spoke about investigative journalism as a mechanism for challenging authority and making government more transparent and accountable.
European Researchers’ Night is a Europe-wide public event that brings researchers closer to the public. The purpose of the event is to showcase the diversity of science and its impact on citizens’ daily lives, stimulating interest in research careers – particularly among young people.
This year, the event will take place in 29 countries on Friday 24 September.
In 2020, European Researchers’ Night attracted over 2 million visitors in Europe and beyond. Participants were able to meet researchers and discover the fascinating world of science in a fun and interactive environment – with their families or on their own.
European Researchers’ Night is funded under the European Commission’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.
Lilyana Pavlova, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) – the lending arm of the European Union – reaffirmed the Bank’s support for faster recovery in North Macedonia and the country’s green and digital transition. Vice-President Pavlova recently visited Skopje and participated in the Ministry of Finance’s annual conference and met with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, Finance Minister Fatmir Besimi, EU Ambassador David Geer and the management board of the Development Bank of North Macedonia. At these meetings, she confirmed the EIB’s unwavering commitment to North Macedonia, announcing support for new investments directed towards the recovery of small and medium-sized enterprises, a renewable and diversified energy supply, digitalisation and major infrastructure projects.
At the meeting, Prime Minister Zaev emphasised the exceptional cooperation with the EIB in supporting capital investment in infrastructure and other projects that are complementary to his government’s reform policies and North Macedonia’s process of integration into the European Union. Finance Minister Fatmir Besimi expressed gratitude for the support given by the EIB on the country’s path to EU accession and confidence that cooperation will continue.
The EU4BusinessRecovery project funded by the EU and the German government has launched a public call for project proposals in the metal and wood-processing sectors in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project will ensure business continuity for small and medium-sized enterprises that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the call will support the creation of start-up companies.
The overall funding available through this call is €3 million while the funding amount per project is €48,000. The funding will be available for activities including the implementation of industry standards, purchase of state-of-the-art energy efficient machinery, dual or multi-source strategies in purchasing, development of a market entry strategy, and digital marketing innovation.
The EU4BusinessRecovery project was launched at the beginning of this year to support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina to continue their business activities and preserve jobs. The total value of the project is €13.7 million, jointly funded by the European Union (€13 million) and the German government (€0.7 million euros). EU4BusinessRecovery is jointly implemented by GIZ (the German Corporation for International Cooperation), the International Labour Organization, and the United Nations Development Programme, and runs from 2021 to 2023.
On 7 September, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, in cooperation with the EU High Representative/ Vice-President of the Commission, Josep Borrell, Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, and the Slovenian Presidency of the Council, hosted a videoconference meeting of EU and Western Balkans Foreign and Home Affairs Ministers on countering firearms trafficking. The meeting also included EU agencies as well as regional and international organisations such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Participants discussed the implementation of the 2020-2025 EU action plan on firearms trafficking with a focus on the actions concerning South-East Europe, and the implementation of the Regional Roadmap for comprehensive Small Arms and Light Weapons control in the Western Balkans. The meeting was an opportunity to discuss further action on the remaining challenges across the region, including gaps in the criminal law frameworks and data exchange between law enforcement, courts and prosecution offices.
Achieving the EU product quality mark has helped a construction company access international markets and improve standards at the same time.
The construction industry in Kosovo is booming, and is a major contributor to economic growth. This is partially due to the demand for housing in and around the capital Prishtina/ Priština, as well as in other major cities. And as demand continues to grow, so does the need for skilled labour and construction materials. Yet as with so many products, most of the materials used in construction are imported, creating a negative trade balance for Kosovo. But change is on the horizon!
Some domestic producers have seen that they can increase their market share by improving the quality of their products to meet EU standards – which, in turn, opens access to lucrative EU markets.
“The quality of concrete paving we produce matches what you’d find anywhere in the EU.”
Meet Shalaj, a family-owned business operating from Istog in western Kosovo. They have been investing for years to be ready for a share of this industry worth hundreds of millions of euros. Shalaj have always claimed that their paving materials are of German quality.
“The quality of concrete paving we produce matches what you’d find anywhere in the EU. Our company has been investing in technology and internal processes for many years to bring our products up to EU standards,” says Endrit Shalaj, the company’s Quality Control Manager.
Achieving proof of quality
However, it was only earlier in 2021 that the Shalaj company could back up their claim with a certificate. With support from an EU-funded project, Free Movement of Goods (FMG), they were able to understand what they needed to do to obtain the ‘CE’ marking. Coming from the French term ‘conformité européenne’, the abbreviation is the EU conformity mark used to certify that a range of products meet EU safety standards. FMG guided the company through the year-long conformity assessment procedure to prove that their product meets the requirements to gain access to the EU market.
“We cannot stress enough how happy we are to get the CE marking – something that we have been working to achieve for a very long time,” says Shalaj about the achievement that will pave the way to enlarging their share of the domestic market and will open new international opportunities.
But the learning didn’t stop there. All the experience and knowledge gained about the certification procedure, as well as domestic and EU legal requirements for construction materials, was shared with other manufacturers as part of the FMG project. One of the specialists involved in the process highlighted how this can give a boost to this important sector of the economy. “The FMG project showed that it is possible for Kosovo companies to achieve the CE marking. Now, the government and individual companies need to continue the work,” says Adam Pinney, a specialist in this field.
Sharing know-how and expertise from specialists like Mr Pinney as part of the three-year FMG project also helped improve product legislation and train enforcement agencies on making the market safer for workers and consumers. This included drafting legal texts, adopting European standards, accrediting conformity assessment bodies, obtaining calibration certificates, and training.
“The FMG project showed that it is possible for Kosovo companies to achieve the CE marking.”
About the project
The aim of the ‘Support to the Free Movement of Goods (FMG)’ project was to develop quality infrastructure, market surveillance and consumer rights in order to improve production processes and increase product quality and safety.
This is part of a wider goal to support the government of Kosovo in creating a more sustainable business-friendly environment aligned with EU standards and body of law – known as the ‘acquis’ – as required by the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.
This is part of Kosovo’s efforts to bring its legislation into line with EU laws, and to gradually develop a free trade area between the EU and Kosovo, where free movement of goods, services and capital are mutually guaranteed. Kosovo and the EU signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) in 2016 setting out mutual rights and obligations.
Achievements such as the CE marking for the Shalaj company are a clear sign that companies are more competitive, products are better and safer, and business partners can trust each other – true testimony as to how new roads are being paved between Kosovo and EU markets.
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