Green transitioning requires behavioral change with collaboration, making regional cooperation on the Green Agenda essential for catalyzing this transition.

Recently held meeting “Revolve to Evolve – Go Circular” focused on the Circular Economy (CE) pillar of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans (GAWB). Scaling up CE from front-runners to mainstream economic players is vital for achieving climate neutrality by 2050, decoupling economic growth from resource use, and ensuring the long-term competitiveness of the Western Balkans.

The Regional Western Balkans Coordination Meeting gathered 148 stakeholders to identify regional needs and priorities for implementing the GAWB action plan, address funding gaps, capitalize on available support, align funding sources with needs and expand green financing.

During the meeting several panels were organized: (1) High-level panel with ministry representatives; (2) Financing opportunities for CE with international financial institutions (IFIs); (3) Exchange on CE practices and partnerships; (4) Improving regional cooperation mechanisms. EU4Green brought together the World Bank, IFC, EBRD, AFD, and KfW for the second panel and moderated the discussion.

Common limitations for CE financing in the region were recognized: capacity constraints, challenging implementation from strategies to actions, and ownership of environmental and CE issues. Among the key success factors for fostering CE financing, the IFI identified: capitalizing on existing processes (best practices, lessons learned, knowledge exchange); recognizing local, social, and economic dimensions; ensuring framework conditions with government strategies and action plans aligned with the EU CE Action Plan.

EU4Green’s Green Finance component has supported the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) with organizing the annual Regional Western Balkans Coordination Meeting, focused on the GAWB.