Зошто е важно ЕУ постепено да ги отвори кохезионите фондови на Западен Балкан во период на процесот на интеграција?
Date Issued
2023
Author(s)
Abstract
Within the European Union (EU) framework, income convergence is re-
garded as a fundamental economic mechanism and an explicit objective. The
Cohesion funds, integral to the EU‘s Cohesion Policy, has been used in con-
junction with other EU Structural Funds to assist post-transitional EU member
countries in achieving significant income convergence with the EU average. A
similar path is envisaged for the Western Balkan countries, although at present
their integration appears to be on a much slower trajectory. It‘s optimistically
projected that they may become EU members in the forthcoming decade. Con-
currently, EU member countries from this region, including Croatia, Bulgaria,
and Romania, are currently receiving and will continue to receive substantial financing from the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) in the next
decade. As an illustration, they are slated to receive billions of euros in grants
solely for the purpose of economic decarbonization. In contrast, the Western
Balkan countries engaged in the EU integration process cannot access the EU
Cohesion funds and are limited to using only the IPA funds. However, the rel-
ative size of the IPA funds the Western Balkans receive is much smaller when
compared to the ESIF. A central thesis of this paper, therefore, is that this dis-
parity will bolster the competitiveness of the EU member economies from this
region against the Western Balkan economies. Consequently, this may result
in divergence, rather than convergence, of the Western Balkan economies with
the economies of the region that are EU members. This paper primarily recommends that the EU should gradually start to make Cohesion Funds available to
the Western Balkan countries during the integration process.
garded as a fundamental economic mechanism and an explicit objective. The
Cohesion funds, integral to the EU‘s Cohesion Policy, has been used in con-
junction with other EU Structural Funds to assist post-transitional EU member
countries in achieving significant income convergence with the EU average. A
similar path is envisaged for the Western Balkan countries, although at present
their integration appears to be on a much slower trajectory. It‘s optimistically
projected that they may become EU members in the forthcoming decade. Con-
currently, EU member countries from this region, including Croatia, Bulgaria,
and Romania, are currently receiving and will continue to receive substantial financing from the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) in the next
decade. As an illustration, they are slated to receive billions of euros in grants
solely for the purpose of economic decarbonization. In contrast, the Western
Balkan countries engaged in the EU integration process cannot access the EU
Cohesion funds and are limited to using only the IPA funds. However, the rel-
ative size of the IPA funds the Western Balkans receive is much smaller when
compared to the ESIF. A central thesis of this paper, therefore, is that this dis-
parity will bolster the competitiveness of the EU member economies from this
region against the Western Balkan economies. Consequently, this may result
in divergence, rather than convergence, of the Western Balkan economies with
the economies of the region that are EU members. This paper primarily recommends that the EU should gradually start to make Cohesion Funds available to
the Western Balkan countries during the integration process.
Subjects
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