The European Union has suspended the Growth Plan fund for Serbia, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos announced.
She accused Serbia of regressing in judicial reforms, France Presse reported on Friday.
The statement was made during a conference in Switzerland, after the Serbian Parliament approved judicial reforms without consulting the prosecution, the courts, the EU or other experts.
Critics of the decisions, adopted in January, say it gives court presidents authority over judges and eliminates the guarantee of an independent justice system, prompting concerns in the EU and the Council of Europe.
“For the moment we have suspended all payments from the Growth Plan because there has been a setback in the area of justice,” she said when asked about Serbia. “Until this improves, they will not be able to benefit from EU support,” she said during a speech at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland.
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The Venice Commission has also assessed that the amendments to the laws on the judiciary in Serbia have removed existing protections for the autonomy of the prosecutorial office. It issued 9 recommendations that the EU expects Serbia to implement.
Serbia is entitled to almost 1.6 billion euros for the three-year period 2024-2027 from the Growth Plan.
Serbia has received 61.1 million euros from the first tranche, or just over half of the target amount, due to not having fulfilled all the planned reforms. So far, the country has received 167 million euros.
The Growth Plan for the Western Balkans is a European Union initiative, adopted at the end of 2023, with the aim of accelerating the region's economic rapprochement with the EU and enabling its gradual access to parts of the common market, before full membership. The EU has allocated €6 billion to this program for the period 2024-2027.
Kosovo also risks losing millions of euros planned from the Growth Plan if it does not complete the reform steps by the end of June this year.
Marta Kos confirmed a few days ago in a debate in the European Parliament's Foreign Policy Committee that she has sent a letter to all six countries in the region, warning them of the need to accelerate reforms in order to benefit from the funds foreseen by the Growth Plan.
The EU has reminded that the gray period for the steps that were supposed to be completed by mid-2025 expires on June 30 of this year. And if the deadlines are not respected, the partners risk losing over 700 million euros together.
Kosovo has just started receiving the first payments from the pre-financing from the Western Balkans Growth Plan last week. These first funds for Kosovo also started to be paid after many delays caused by the political deadlock in 2025 in Kosovo, when there was no possibility of ratification of the agreements for loans and funds between Kosovo and the EU in the Kosovo Assembly. According to one calculation, Kosovo will lose 68.8 million euros in June.
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According to a table for monitoring the fulfillment of conditions from the Growth Plan, Kosovo has not fulfilled any of the 111 steps foreseen by this plan.
Kosovo was expected to benefit from the Growth Plan by around 880 million euros.
