FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Western Balkan candidates get an extra amount of money to spend with a high degree of impunity, and the EU appears to be helping them in their bid for membership. In reality, the money risks being spent on initiatives that will either do nothing to advance their EU efforts or, more worryingly, actively jeopardize their chances.
European Union leaders continue to insist that the bloc is ready and waiting to welcome Western Balkan countries into the group. This week, there was yet more evidence that Brussels is unwilling to offer little more than simple lies.
Brussels met with the Balkans this week, as leaders such as Albania's Edi Rama, Montenegro's Milojko Spajic and North Macedonia's Talat Xhaferi were in town for meetings with top EU leaders.
All three are aspiring members of the Union, along with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Serbia. All are at different points on their long journey to bloc membership.
A new report released this week suggests that this journey is not coming to an end.
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) is not the most glamorous or influential of the EU institutions. It lacks the legislative power of the Commission, the dark vague power of the Council or the noisy pedestal of Parliament.
But she has one thing you can count on: a willingness to tell her more prominent counterparts that they're not doing their jobs right.
In the ECA archive you can find a whole treasure of evaluations and denunciations. Backstage has more than once pulled something interesting out of the back catalog.
This week, auditors revealed their findings on a new €6 billion boost plan for the Western Balkans that the Commission proposed last November.
Under this new strategy, the six aspiring EU members will be given access to €2 billion in grants and €4 billion in full loans. This would be on top of the existing billions given to all candidates for EU membership.
Auditors didn't have much good to say about the plan. It lacks proper oversight of how Balkan nations will access money, for example. Money is earmarked for reforms, but ambition is low.
Governments will not have to stand on their own two feet either, as the Commission will only make suggestions and recommendations, rather than actual demands for more and deeper reforms.
In general, it amounts to a glorified bribe. Western Balkan candidates get an extra amount of money to spend with a high degree of impunity, and the EU appears to be helping them in their bid for membership.
In reality, the money risks being spent on initiatives that will either do nothing to advance their EU efforts or, more worryingly, actively jeopardize their chances.
It's all about optics. It felt like you were doing something without making any progress. Senior EU officials know that enlargement cannot happen without reforms at home, and the chances of that happening anytime soon are slim.
You can tell that the Commission is not too bothered by all this, because the EU executive has not even provided an impact assessment or analytical document detailing how this money would actually benefit the region.
Additional information was supposed to be submitted by February 8. Surprise, surprise, nowhere to be seen.
Brussels insists it is serious about enlargement. Either this is a lie or, even worse, it is true and the EU is simply repeating the same mistakes it made with countries like Hungary and allowing graft and corruption to go unchecked.
Well done to the Court of Auditors for observing what other institutions are doing. Hopefully more people will take what they say into account and hold policy makers to account./ Taken from The Brussels Times
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