{"id":631,"date":"2024-09-23T00:41:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-22T23:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/railway.242studio.com\/?p=631"},"modified":"2025-01-13T18:59:03","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T17:59:03","slug":"giaufret-the-growth-plan-for-the-western-balkans-consists-of-clear-preconditions-the-eu-needs-a-strong-serbia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/railway.242studio.com\/en\/giaufret-the-growth-plan-for-the-western-balkans-consists-of-clear-preconditions-the-eu-needs-a-strong-serbia\/","title":{"rendered":"Giaufret: The Growth Plan for the Western Balkans Consists of Clear Preconditions, the EU Needs a Strong Serbia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Emanuele Giaufret, stated that the growth plan for the Western Balkans consists of clear instructions, or preconditions, and that the Western Balkan countries will be invited to submit Reform Agendas to the Commission, outlining the socio-economic and fundamental reforms they plan to undertake in the next three years. Giaufret made this statement during the panel discussion \u201cGrowth Plan for the Western Balkans: What Are the Benefits for Small and Medium Enterprises,\u201d held as part of the European Week of Opportunities.

As he stated, \u201cEU member states will have the final say in approving financial funds.\u201d

\u201cThis is financing amounting to six billion euros allocated by the European Commission for the Western Balkans, over one and a half billion euros of which are for Serbia. The point is to implement the necessary reforms, and if the country executes them well, the EC will provide the funds,\u201d Giaufret emphasized.

He added that the Growth Plan, besides financial resources, offers numerous other opportunities, but the fundamental question remains how to integrate the Western Balkans into the EU\u2019s single market even before the countries of the region become members.

\u201cThe new system allows us to introduce the Western Balkans into this market before accession. Specifically, a single payment system within the EU means, for instance, paying the same fees from Paris to Tallinn as you would from Paris to Marseille. This is what we offer Serbia \u2013 to soon be part of the EU\u2019s single payment system. This will save half a billion annually. It\u2019s more cost-effective for both companies and citizens. Practically, this means no fees will be charged when a company from Novi Sad pays a company in Portugal, for example,\u201d Giaufret explained.

He added that the European Union \u201cknows\u201d it is Serbia\u2019s largest partner, but border crossing delays remain a problem.

\u201cThese delays mean higher costs and longer times, but we can change that. We also see an opportunity for progress in the digital market. We want to see more of Serbia digitally represented, and as Serbia has already made significant progress and is advancing well in digitalization, we know it has excellent capacity for accessing the digital market,\u201d he said.

Giaufret also mentioned the Digital Wallet \u2013 an easier method enabling the opening of bank accounts or university registration.

\u201cWe want to bring Serbia into the Wi-Fi zone, allowing local communities to connect their citizens to the internet. These are all specific steps we want to take with Serbia over the next three years. The European Union needs a strong Serbia,\u201d said Giaufret.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Emanuele Giaufret, stated that the growth plan for the Western Balkans consists of clear instructions, or preconditions, and that the Western Balkan countries will be invited to submit Reform Agendas to the Commission, outlining the socio-economic and fundamental reforms they plan to undertake in the next three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/railway.242studio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/railway.242studio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/railway.242studio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/railway.242studio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/railway.242studio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/railway.242studio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1134,"href":"https:\/\/railway.242studio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631\/revisions\/1134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/railway.242studio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/railway.242studio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/railway.242studio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/railway.242studio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}