Kos: No decision made on freezing EU Growth Plan funds for Serbia

BRUSSELS - EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said on Monday the EU had not made a formal decision on freezing Western Balkans Growth Plan funds for Serbia, and added that the candidate countries' fulfilment of criteria was constantly being checked.

"What we are doing now is we are constantly checking if all the recipient countries of the Growth Plan money are fulfilling the criteria," Kos told reporters in Brussels before an informal meeting of EU and Western Balkan FMs and said she hoped Serbia would meet the criteria to get the funds.

"And it is true that, since the judiciary amendments a few months back, we have not done any payments, but there was no formal decision made on not paying," Kos said.

"I have never heard that the funds are being frozen. Really, this is very important with Serbia. Serbia has a place in the European Union, a democratic Serbia," she said.

"I think it is very important that when we have candidate countries, we are aware - and this is also what our president and myself have many times said - a candidate status comes with commitments on both sides. And we expect from a candidate country to develop, not to go into regression on certain areas," Kos also said.