September 8 (SeeNews) - The Council of the European Union (EU) said it has agreed on providing nearly 14.2 billion euro ($16.8 billion) in pre-accession financial assistance to seven countries in Southeast Europe (SEE) - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey - and Iceland until 2027.
The funding will help the non-EU member states implement political, institutional, legal, administrative, social and economic reforms to comply with EU values and to progressively align themselves with EU rules, standards, policies and practices, the Council of the EU said in a statement on Tuesday.
The pre-accession financial assistance, called Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance III (IPA III), is a continuation of a previous cycle - IPA II - and complements other EU instruments and policies.
The European Commission presented its proposal for a regulation establishing the IPA III in June 2018. The Presidency of the EU Council and the Parliament reached a political agreement on the regulation in June this year.
($ = 0.8445 euro)