The twenty-sixth meeting of the WBIF Project Financiers’ Group (PFG) took place in Brussels, on 7 November 2018. More than 80 participants from the European Commission, WBIF Financial Institutions, Bilateral Donors, European Union Delegations, Energy Community Secretariat, South East Europe Transport Observatory and Western Balkans beneficiaries met to review the WBIF’s progress over the past six months and consider future developments and operations.

The plenary discussions, chaired by the European Commission and European Investment Bank (EIB), focused on the applications for technical assistance (TA) received in Round 20. Eleven grants were selected for approval by the WBIF Steering Committee on 6 December 2018 in Luxembourg. With a total grant value of €16.3 million, the TA, if approved, will be provided by IPA through the Infrastructure Project Facility. The grants are intended to contribute to the further planning and implementation of energy, environment, transport and social projects throughout the region. In addition, transport and environment sector investment projects will be submitted to the 19th WBIF SC for approval, to be co-financed by the European Union and the Bilateral Donor community respectively.

The proceedings of the PFG meeting also included an update on the status of the Investment Round 3 and the WBIF Joint Fund Balance, the latest WBIF Monitoring Report, an update on DG NEAR policy for the Western Balkans, and first trends of the WBIF self-assessment. In addition, participants heard from EIB about an economic model promoting the “4 eyes” principle.

The plenary was complemented by a presentation of the ex-ante market assessment for the Western Balkans Guarantee Facility, and other initiatives relevant for the WBIF - JASPERS and CONNECTA. The WBIF Secretariat updated the participants on the findings of the funding needs analysis of the WBIF portfolio and the latest NIC report, announced the Youth Education Sector Study as background paper for the next WBIF Steering Committee, presented ideas for the upcoming WBIF 10 years anniversary and invited participants to share slogan ideas with the WBIF Secretariat.

More details on the WBIF PFG meeting, including the agenda of the event and presentations, can be found in Library.