The participants of the Growth Plan Summit, 1 July 2025, Skopje; Photo: European Commission
By Tirana Times
SKOPJE, July 2, 2025 — The European Union’s renewed enthusiasm for enlargement took center stage at this week’s Growth Plan Summit in Skopje, where EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos joined the leaders of Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The summit marked a new push to accelerate reforms across the region, backed by a €6 billion EU package through the Reform and Growth Facility (RGF). Yet, behind the pledges of funding and integration, the EU continues to turn a blind eye to a deepening democratic backslide and systemic state capture gripping parts of the Western Balkans.
“The Growth Plan is entirely in your hands,” Kos told leaders, calling for faster reforms and implementation of the Reform Agendas. The rhetoric was strong: shared prosperity, fast-tracked integration into the EU Single Market, and promises of economic alignment through SEPA and Green Lanes. Kos praised the opening of negotiation clusters by Albania and new legislative progress in Montenegro. But missing from the stage was a sober EU recognition of the political rot festering beneath this veneer of reform.
The Disconnect Between Brussels and Balkan Realities
Despite pledges to build “an independent Europe” and integrate the Western Balkans on the basis of democratic values and common principles, Brussels appears increasingly entangled in transactional politics—rewarding formal compliance with EU requirements while ignoring substantive backsliding in the rule of law, electoral integrity, and separation of powers.
Nowhere is this contradiction clearer than in Albania. A NATO member and EU candidate, the country has effectively drifted toward a one-party system, with power concentrated in the hands of one individual who dominates the legislative, executive and—many allege—judicial branches. The most recent parliamentary elections offered less a contest between political programs than a showdown between state machinery and a fragmented opposition.
Far from anchoring democratic standards, EU support risks legitimizing a government accused of hollowing out institutions and enabling systemic corruption. According to independent experts, Albania’s booming construction industry—often held up as a sign of economic vitality—is in fact a key vehicle for laundering criminal proceeds. “There is no clear line between organized crime and organized politics anymore,” said one foreign analyst speaking on background. This erosion of democratic and legal boundaries undermines the very European values the EU claims to promote.
Serbia: The Elephant in the Room
Likewise, in Serbia—long considered the geopolitical pivot of the region—the EU’s lenience is bordering on complicity. President Aleksandar Vučić continues to tighten his grip on state institutions, control media narratives, and marginalize opposition forces. Yet Serbia remains central to EU diplomacy, despite Belgrade’s flirtations with Russia and China and open defiance of Western policies in the region.
If Commissioner Kos’s summit speech was marked by optimism and appeals for visionary leadership, it was equally notable for what it did not say. There was no mention of the capture of state institutions, the erosion of checks and balances, or the violence and irregularities that mar elections across the region. Instead, the focus remained fixed on technical benchmarks and “delivery”—a strategy that might buy short-term compliance, but risks entrenching long-term authoritarianism.
Kosovo and Bosnia: Still on the Sidelines
Even as funds begin flowing to countries like Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Montenegro, Kosovo remains stuck in legislative limbo, unable to unlock its portion of the Reform and Growth Facility(RGF) due to internal delays. Bosnia and Herzegovina only just adopted its draft Reform Agenda. The EU has welcomed these steps, but it remains unclear how much political capital Brussels is willing to invest in resolving deeper ethnic and institutional stalemates that block real governance reform.
In Kosovo, post-election deadlock has delayed the constitution of a new parliament—raising further concerns about fragile democratic structures. Yet even here, EU conditionality seems diluted by political pragmatism.
Reform or Regression?
For all the talk of modernization and growth, the defining challenge for EU enlargement in the Western Balkans remains political: Can the Union remain true to its founding values while engaging governments that increasingly diverge from them? Commissioner Kos stressed that reforms will only be rewarded once fully implemented. But what happens when reforms are performed cosmetically—papering over captured states with superficial compliance?
The Skopje summit may have reenergized the EU’s enlargement rhetoric. But until Brussels reckons honestly with the region’s slide toward authoritarianism and criminalized governance, its Growth Plan risks becoming a hollow exercise—enriching elites while leaving democracy weaker and European credibility more fragile than ever.
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