On 15 January 2026, Members of the European Parliament met in a joint session of the Committees on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and Budgets (BUDG) with Gert Jan Koopman, Director-General of DG ENEST, to review the implementation of the Reform and Growth Facilities for the Western Balkans, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine. The discussion focused on the practical application of conditionality, the disbursement of funds, and the verification of reform delivery.
This scrutiny reflects a broader shift in EU enlargement policy. Through performance-based instruments such as the EUR 6 billion Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans, EU support is now directly linked to the achievement of concrete reform steps set out in national Reform Agendas. According to the European Commission background document, 453 million Euro have already been released, strictly on the basis of verified reform progress, while early implementation reveals significant disparities across the region.
In July 2025, Albania reported on reform steps due in the period December 2024 – June 2025, as well as selected steps scheduled for December 2025. Following the Commission’s assessment, 21 out of 41 reform steps were deemed achieved, corresponding to a gross amount of EUR 107 million. Albania’s next reporting round was scheduled for 15 January 2026.
In this context, independent reform monitoring plays an important complementary role. In Albania, the Reform Tracker – a reform tracking mechanism has been in place since April 2025, thus being the first public platform in the Western Balkans tracking the Albanian National Reform Agenda under the EU’s Reform and Growth Facility. Updated regularly, The Reform Tracker offers a timely and structured overview of reform implementation under the Growth Plan and contributes to a clearer understanding of how conditionality operates in practice.
