At a forum in Tirana, von der Leyen and Rama cast the Western Balkans as a driving force for Europe’s growth and integration. A conference in Tirana on Monday came with a clear message: the Western Balkans are no longer Europe’s backyard, they are becoming its next engine of growth.
Speaking alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the EU-Western Balkans Investment Forum, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama declared that “for too long, the story of Europe and the Western Balkans has been written in the grammar of waiting.” Now, he said, it is time to “replace potential with purpose.”
Rama’s address painted a picture of the region as a “new frontier” – not of borders and divisions, but of creativity and energy. “The Western Balkans are not Europe’s backyard, nor its second-hand neighbourhood,” he told the audience. “They are its new frontier – a place where Europe can rediscover her agility, her hunger, her creative drive.”
For Rama, this frontier means a testing ground for Europe’s resilience and innovation. He called for transforming the region into a “laboratory of integration,” where European investments move faster, bureaucracy is lighter, and reforms are driven by shared strategic goals. “We are not asking for a free seat at the table,” he said. “We are asking to help the EU build the table anew.”
Europe’s promise
Von der Leyen’s remarks built directly on Rama’s vision, blending political reassurance with concrete progress. “One year ago, I came to Albania with a pledge,” she reminded the audience. “That people and companies in the Western Balkans would start to experience the European Union in their daily lives. And one year on, this is exactly what is happening.”
She cited Albania’s rapid accession to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) as proof of how reforms can deliver tangible benefits. “Since last week, companies here can send money to and from the EU at greatly reduced costs,” she said. “Joining SEPA will save your companies roughly €500 million per year. This is progress not just on paper, but in practice.”
SEPA is a European Union initiative that harmonizes euro-denominated credit transfers, direct debits, and card payments across 36 participating countries, enabling seamless, cost-effective cross-border transactions as if they were domestic.
Von der Leyen’s central message was equally clear: the Western Balkans are firmly on their way to joining the Union, and the EU’s new Growth Plan for the region aims to double its GDP over the next decade through investment, regulatory alignment and deeper market integration.
“This is the time to invest in the Western Balkans,” she told business leaders gathered in Tirana, announcing more than €4 billion in new investments currently under discussion. These include deals on clean energy, digital infrastructure and industrial partnerships, integrating local industries into the EU’s supply chains.
On artificial intelligence, the Commission President revealed that the EU will open its AI Factories to the Western Balkans, starting with two “factory antennas” in North Macedonia and Serbia, connected through a new high-speed digital backbone. “I want the future of AI to be made in Europe,” she said, “and I want the Western Balkans at its core.”
The second pillar of her vision focused on clean energy. The region, she said, can become “a hub to produce, store and share renewable energy with the rest of Europe.” New investments in solar, wind, and storage facilities – including in Montenegro – will lower costs and strengthen collective energy independence.
Finally, von der Leyen highlighted the integration of industrial value chains, from battery production and pharmaceuticals to textile recycling and agriculture. “Investing in the Western Balkans means investing in a continental market of 500 million people,” she said.
The Tirana forum offered a rare moment of strategic clarity in the enlargement debate. Rama and von der Leyen aligned on one essential point: enlargement is no longer a bureaucratic process, but a geopolitical necessity. As Rama put it, “the Western Balkans are not a problem to be solved but a solution waiting to be integrated.”
Von der Leyen echoed this sentiment with a call to action for investors: “If you choose the Western Balkans, you choose Europe.”
After Albania, von der Leyen continued her Balkan tour in Montenegro, with her next stops being Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, and North Macedonia.