Von der Leyen pledges more EU on Balkans visit

European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen announced further EU flood recovery funding and reiterated the EU’s commitment to addressing climate change, in Slovenia on Monday, 2 September.

On a tour of the Balkans, von der Leyen visited northern Slovenia, which was hit by flooding in November 2023. She promised Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob EUR 428mn from the European Solidarity Fund (EUSF) for repairing damaged infrastructure, which includes a EUR 100m emergency payment approved in November 2023. The sum is part of a larger EUR 1bn aid package for several countries hit by floods last year, including Austria, which borders Slovenia and will receive EUR 5.2mn.

Mayor of Crna na Koroskem, north Slovenia, Romana Lesjak, was joined by von der Leyen and Golob to inspect a section of road recently reconstructed with EU funds. Von der Leyen said “hope is back in Crna”.

European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reform Elisa Ferreira said the funding will provide assistance towards emergency costs and help “EU countries to rebuild better in the context of the challenges posed by climate change”. Von der Leyen described the mechanism as “reliable”.

Last year floods affected 1.6mn European residents and caused around 81% of the year’s climate-related economic losses on the continent. Since 2002, the EUSF has mobilised more than EUR 8.6bn for emergency and recovery operations in response to 110 natural disasters and 20 health emergencies in 24 EU countries and 4 candidate countries.

Bosnia could be EU’s next candidate – von der Leyen at Bled forum

Von der Leyen and Golob later discussed the EU enlargement process, the Western Balkans, and the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. These discussions continued at the Bled Strategic Forum, this year entitled “A world of parallel realities”, where von der Leyen proclaimed a “remarkable turnaround” in EU enlargement policy during her five-year tenure as EC chief.

Later in the month, under the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, presented by the EC last year, the EU’s six Western Balkans partners will adopt their Reform Agenda, linked to EUR 6bn worth of investments. 

When the plan has been completed, the EU’s Western Balkans partners will have received roughly as much aid per capita as they would have under the EU’s Cohesion Policy.

Von der Leyen recalled that under her tenure EU accession negotiations have been launched with Albania, North Macedonia, Moldova, and Ukraine and said Bosnia and Herzegovina could be next in line.

She said “Enlargement is an investment in our collective strength and security. A bigger single market increases our competitiveness and our leverage as a trading partner. It gives us the tools to respond to blackmail and unfair competition (and) greater common purchasing power.