On October 16, 2023 the tenth Summit of the Berlin Process under the Albanian Chairmanship  took place in Tirana, with the participation of President of the European Council Charles Michel; President of the European Commission Ursula Von Der Leyen; German Chancellor Olaf Scholz; and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, amongst others.

This was an opportunity for the EU institutions to reaffirm their commitment to support the Western Balkans reform process and regional economic cooperation. It was reaffirmed that the Berlin Process is the best instrument to speed up the integration of Western Balkan countries and that any progress made on the Common Regional Market will bring the Western Balkan countries significantly closer to EU standards.

For this purpose, a 30 billion Euro Economic and Investment Plan was put in place, of which 16 billion Euros have already been deployed, but more has to be done. Von der Leyen further spoke about the new Growth Plan, stating that, with 2 billion Euro in grants and 4 billion in loans, relieved upon the delivery of reforms, it has the potential to double the size of the economies of the Western Balkans by the end of the decade. Please find more on the Council Newsroom here.

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