At a regional conference held last week in Belgrade, leaders from several Western Balkan states agreed to start sending “National Economic Reform Programs” to the European Commission for review each year, beginning in 2015.
These programmes will present the measures that the countries will undertake to ensure macroeconomic and financial stability and include clear timelines and the assessed effects of these measures on respective budgets.
Stefan Fule, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, said greater integration of economic reform plans would “send a strong signal to investors… meaning more investment and more prosperity for… countries in the region”.
Fule said the new approach to economic governance involved drawing up credible reform programmes and enhanced monitoring by the EU.
