- For almost twenty-five years, the OECD South East Europe Regional Programme (SEERP) has supported the six Western Balkan economies in designing, prioritising, assessing and implementing key reforms in line with their national reform plans. In November 2023, the European Commission announced the new Growth Plan for the Western Balkans to accelerate the region’s convergence with the European Union. To help the Western Balkan policy-makers in identifying bottlenecks hindering growth, the SEERP developed the Economic Convergence Scoreboard for the Western Balkans, which assesses the economic convergence of the Western Balkans relative to the EU, drawing on 35 indicators across five policy clusters essential for sustainable, inclusive growth.
- Economic Convergence Scoreboard. Launched in 2023, the pilot version of the Economic Convergence Scoreboard for the Western Balkans assesses the level and pace of economic convergence of the Western Balkans with the EU, leveraging data and input collected as part of decade-long policy assessments by the OECD. The Scoreboard is divided into five clusters: infrastructure and connectivity, skills, the business environment, the digital transformation and greening. The Scoreboard illustrates the overall convergence of the Western Balkans while providing individual profiles for each of the six economies, highlighting the varying levels of progress within the region. The second edition, financed by Poland as part of its EU Presidency, will be released in May 2025.
Economic Convergence in the Western Balkans
Despite significant strides in economic convergence with the EU, the Western Balkans' GDP per capita remains low, at just 40% of the EU average. To narrow this gap between the region and EU member states, the six economies must speed up the pace of reforms aimed at improving infrastructure and connectivity, skills, the business environment, the digital transformation and greening.
