On Monday 10 January, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) will publish a special report on the EU's support for the rule of law in the Western Balkans.
ABOUT THE TOPIC
In the Western Balkans, Slovenia (since 2004) and Croatia (since 2013) are now EU Member States. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are not EU members, but all of them aspire to join. However, the enlargement procedure is taking far longer than any previous such negotiations.
The Western Balkans receive financing from several sources, but the EU is the region's biggest donor. EU financial assistance is mainly channelled through the Instrument for Pre-accession (IPA II). The rule of law is one of its nine priority sectors.
ABOUT THE AUDIT
The EU auditors have assessed whether EU support for rule-of-law reforms in the Western Balkans has been effective. In particular, they have analysed the EU's contributions to the “rule of law" components of the justice and the judiciary, anti-corruption measures and human rights sections of the accession process.
More information on this audit can be found
here.
FOR PRESS
ECA press office will hold a virtual briefing on Monday 10 January. Journalists who wish to participate should contact press@eca.europa.eu for details.
The report and press release will be published on the ECA website
eca.europa.eu at 5:00 p.m. CET on Monday 10 January.
The ECA member responsible for this report is Juhan Parts.
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence
The ECA’s special reports set out the results of its audits of EU policies and programmes or management topics related to specific budgetary areas. The ECA selects and designs these audit tasks to be of maximum impact by considering the risks to performance or compliance, the level of income or spending involved, forthcoming developments and political and public interest.