The Western Balkans have made significant strides toward European integration over the past two decades and since the Thessaloniki Summit in 2003, when regional leaders alongside representatives of the European Union (EU) declared their aspirations for a European future for the region. Today, five economies - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia - have candidate status and Kosovo applied for EU membership in 2022.
Poland has placed the Western Balkans' EU integration at the top of the agenda of its EU Council Presidency. This demonstrates a shared commitment to fostering regional prosperity and economic resilience and provides a critical window of opportunity to make tangible progress toward EU membership. To fully seize this momentum, it is essential for the Western Balkans to advance on structural reforms, ensuring alignment with EU policies and standards. During the EU accession negotiations, candidate countries must present data confirming the implementation of relevant policies. Their foreign policy is measured by the degree of alignment with the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.
Recognising the OECD’s experience in evidence-based policy analysis, Poland has partnered with the OECD to analyse the extent to which candidates’ economic policies converge with those of the EU. The Economic Convergence Scoreboard for the Western Balkans 2025 report highlights the significant efforts that the Western Balkans must make to transform a range of key economic sectors and presents a new tool that measures reform outcomes and provides concrete policy guidance for further progress. It offers a comprehensive assessment of the policies and reforms needed to accelerate economic growth and deepen EU integration.
The report identifies a number of key priority areas for policy action in the Western Balkans, including:
To support business expansion and boost market integration, further investment in infrastructure and transport is needed, with a particular focus on railway transport where the volume of goods transported per kilometre of railway in the Western Balkans is currently just 4.2% of the EU average.
To help businesses and citizens leverage digital and emerging technologies and address digital skills gaps, where for example only 34% of the adult population in the Western Balkans has at least basic digital skills when compared to 56% in the EU, further investment in education and adult training programmes, as well as enhanced incentives for research and development, are needed.
To meet the region’s environmental targets and commitments, policies need to support more efficient use of resources and greater investment in green technologies, as waste generation per unit of GDP is on the rise across the region and its management is a challenge - more than 83% of municipal waste is disposed of in landfills, compared to 23% in the EU.
We thank all stakeholders who contributed to this report, especially the Western Balkans’ national statistical offices for their data support, and the region’s administrations for their invaluable insights.
This report reflects our shared commitment to supporting the Western Balkans on their path toward EU membership. Together with OECD’s other flagship regional reports on the Western Balkans, such as the Competitiveness Outlook and the SME Policy Index, the OECD is providing a roadmap to support economic policy reform towards a more prosperous and European future for all citizens in the region.
Mathias Cormann,
Secretary-General, OECD
Radosław Sikorski,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Poland