Paving the way to EU accession for the Western Balkans

Practical information

• Composition of the study group
• Administrator: David Hoić / Assistant: Nadja Kačičnik

Background

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) was asked by the upcoming Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU to produce an exploratory opinion on paving the way to EU accession for the Western Balkans, underlining the benefits of the future enlargement to the region from a holistic point of view.

The opinion will take into careful examination European Commission's communications on pre-enlargement reforms and policy reviews (COM(2024) 146 final), the New growth plan for the Western Balkans (COM(2023) 691 final) and the 2023 Enlargement Package. It will also primarily serve as a summary of a number of recent opinions and documents of the EESC on the Western Balkans (such as the opinion on the New growth plan and Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans) and enlargement (such as opinions on the effects of enlargement on the cohesion policy, EU single market and agri-food sector), with an emphasis on the EESC's ground-breaking "Enlargement Candidate Members" (ECMs) initiative.

The opinion will aim to look at the EU accession of the Western Balkans from the perspective of organised civil society and propose means of concrete inclusion of social partners and civil society organisations in the process.