The European Union has invested €527 million into a flagship fund designed to better connect the Western Balkans to the bloc's transport network.
However, more than a decade after the initiative was launched, EU auditors warn that the region is unlikely to complete its core European transport network by the 2030 deadline.
As the EU seeks to deepen ties with candidate countries and expand its influence in the Western Balkans, the bloc still lacks a reliable overview of whether many of the projects it finances there are being delivered on time and within budget, according to the latest audit from the European Court of Auditors (ECA) unveiled on Tuesday, just a few days after the EU-Western Balkans summit in Montenegro.
The ECA findings date back to the period between 2015 and mid-2025, when the European Commission allocated €527 million to regional transport infrastructure through the Western Balkans funds. EU auditors audited 12 specific road, rail and waterway projects totalling €341.6 million across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia.
The findings raise uncomfortable questions about the oversight of one of the EU's most strategically important investment programmes in a region seen as central to the bloc's enlargement ambitions.
