Pristina, 3 june - Today the Kosovo Ministry for European Integration, the Ministry of Finance and the European Commission co-organized the National Investment Committee (NIC) preparatory meeting. In the meeting parties discussed key national and regional infrastructure investments, in particular the co-financing of railway line 10, whereby the European Commission confirmed its readiness to fund this project in the amount of 40 million Euros.

Jean-Eric Paquet, the Director for the Western Balkans at the European Commission, said:

\"The establishment of a National Investment Committee and the definition of a prioritised Single Project Pipeline are key requirements to be met in order to secure the project co-financing by the European Commission through the Western Balkans Investment Framework in 2015 as well as in subsequent programming periods. The European Commission hopes that the established NIC convenes before the summer.\"

\"The meeting should review and establish a first draft list of priority investment projects in line with the Western Balkan core transport network and the Projects of Energy Community Interest. This should be done in coherence with the country\'s overall investment and financing strategy reflecting all other ongoing or planned investments and taking due account of the fiscal framework and constraints.\"

The Minister for European Integration, Bekim Çollaku, said: 

\"Last year, under the initiative of the Chancellor Merkel, the Western Balkans leaders gathered in Berlin to reach an agreement on key Western Balkans regional infrastructure investment priorities, or as it is known the \'Connectivity Agenda\'.

\"A new momentum has been created within the Western Balkans European agenda with respect to infrastructure investments, with the ultimate aim to support economic and social growth of the Western Balkan countries. The European Union has allocated 1 billion Euros for financing infrastructure investments emerging from Berlin process.”

Kosovo Minister of Finance, Avdullah Hoti, said: 

“We have closely worked with the Ministry of European Integration to establish the National Committee for Investment and I think that the establishment of this committee is important for our approximation with Europe and it is an incentive for improving the public financial management. The committee will deal with a broader review of priorities in the field of energy and road infrastructure. Membership of Kosovo in IMF, EBRD, EIB and CEB provided opportunities to finance capital projects of large scale through development lending and we as Ministry of Finance are committed to invest in projects that have a better return on investment”.

National Investment Committee meetings are forums emerging from Berlin process obligations, which ensure project oversight and implementation at the country level.