European Union Would Pay Five Euros Per Capita Per Year for Western Balkans Enlargement

Western Balkans (Photo: Nevena Zaric)

Each resident of the European Union (EU) would, on average, have to pay five euros and 29 euro cents per year over a seven-year period to support the integration of the Western Balkans into the Union, according to a study conducted by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) and the Center for European Policy (CEP).

According to the study of costs and benefits involved in the Western Balkans’s accession to the EU, presented on Dec. 22 at the European House Belgrade, the accession of the states of the region would bring economic benefits to the Western Balkans and the EU alike.

The CEP program manager, Strahinja Subotic, said that when the total cost of integrating the Western Balkans, estimated at EUR46.6 billion, was distributed per EU capita over seven years, the result amounts to the price of one coffee and a croissant per year. On average, the burden for each EU member state would be 0.015 percent of gross national income.

The KAD director for Serbia and Montenegro, Jakov Devcic, said that the cost of the region’s accession was not the only issue, but also what would be the price the EU should pay if the region was left outside the Union.

Plamena Halacheva, deputy head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, said that the main concern among EU citizens was if the new enlargement drive would make the Union stronger or weaker. She explained that it was important to note that new member states were not just at the receiving end of the EU funds, but they would contribute to the Union, too, which is why enlargement was never just a cost.

Serbia’s Minister for European Integration Nemanja Starovic said that enlargement fatigue was “still present” within the EU and that, due to the lack of consensus among member states on opening Cluster 3, the Union was sending a “bad message” to Serbia and its citizens - one that benefits those opposing Serbia’s EU accession.