Thank you very much for welcoming me back here in Pristina. We had an excellent meeting. We discussed the progress made by Kosovo on its EU-related reforms. Your efforts have already led to a major success: the visa-free travel regime. I remember very well how, rightly so, intense the wish was to reach this goal. You have made it. Since January, the people of Kosovo can travel to the European Union without a visa, like all citizens of the region. This shows how much we can achieve when we work together. Congratulations again on this big success of yours.
Dear Vjosa, I know that over the past years, Kosovo has worked hard to strengthen democracy and the rule of law with great success. And I want to assure you and the people of Kosovo, that in my second mandate, enlargement will stay at the top of the agenda. And therefore, we will work very closely together to move forward on that matter. Because I am committed to a future where all six Western Balkan partners are part of our Union. We have now all the necessary tools and instruments in place to make this a reality. I want to stress specifically one initiative that you also mentioned, and this is the Growth Plan.
The Growth Plan for the Western Balkans is designed to bring the region's economies closer to our Single Market, and to gradually integrate it into our Single Market. We know that the success of enlargement is not only about political alignment, value-sharing, the push forward for democracy and rule of law, but also about the economic prosperity that we saw in the countries that joined the European Union. So we move forward here too. We open already now sectors of our Single Market to our Western Balkan partners, so that companies, from Kosovo for example, can access the Single Market. For that, we need reforms to have a level playing field. But these reforms will be accompanied by additional European investments.
It has been a year since we started the discussion, and most Western Balkan countries have their reform agenda ready – so does Kosovo. Kosovo has done a great job on this reform agenda, so congratulations to you and your team for delivering on this one. Now we should be able to start with the pre-financing of more than EUR 60 million which you could be released already before the end of this year. Overall, as you said, more than EUR 880 million are available for Kosovo under the Growth Plan.
In this context, I also warmly welcome the agreement found recently to unblock the Common Regional Market in the Western Balkans. That is also very important for the prosperity of the Western Balkans. This agreement lifts restrictions on exports from Serbian goods into Kosovo. We have also discussed European funding for new X-ray scanners. They will be used to screen these goods – that is important – before they enter your market, at the crossing point. So, this is all excellent news because these are concrete steps towards the European Union and normalisation.
I congratulate you on the constant determination, the stamina you have and the will you are showing on this path forward toward the European Union. I am convinced that we will continue both, together, this success story. And thank you again for hosting me here in Kosovo.
