To date, the EU has mobilized €18 billion, including €6 billion in grants, as part of its investment plan for the Western Balkans, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said following the EU-Western Balkans summit held in Brussels on the evening of December 17, Report informs.
"To date, our investment plan has mobilised EUR 18 billion, including EUR 6 billion in EU grants. Across the region, over 68 flagship projects are underway to finance critical infrastructure in transport, energy, digital connectivity, and environmental projects. These investments are making the region more competitive and better connected to our Single Market. Take AI: we are setting up a network of AI Factories across the EU and we are opening them to the Western Balkans, with AI Factory Antennas in Serbia and North Macedonia," she noted.
"This will allow companies from all the region to connect with these factories, giving them access to Europe's AI infrastructure and a huge amount of computational power. All of this attracts private investment. During our investment conferences in Albania and Montenegro we secured investment declarations from private investors worth more than EUR 4 billion. And I am happy to announce that, following the smooth and orderly transition of local l governance in the north after the recent local elections, we are moving forward to lift the measures on Kosovo. We are programming 216 million euro of financial assistance. And we intend to release 205 million euro early next year," she added.
"It is a strategic choice. It is an investment in our shared security and freedom. Today's geopolitical headwinds are strong and fast. And the speed of the accession process needs to match the pace of geopolitical shifts. For the first time in more than a decade, enlargement has become a realistic possibility," she said.