EU finalizes 2014 IPA package to back reforms in Western Balkans, Turkey

The funding, totalling 2.0 billion euro ($2.49 billion), comes under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA), and will be available to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo and Turkey, the Commission said in a statement.

The package also includes multi-annual programmes to support specific sectors over the next three years in Turkey and Macedonia.

"These funds will support concrete democratic and economic reforms: from modernisation of the judiciary and public administration, to investments in infrastructure and connectivity between the enlargement countries and with the EU member states," the European commissioner for European neighbourhood policy and enlargement negotiations, Johannes Hahn, said in the statement.

The programmes will focus on better governance, with projects aiming at reforming public administration, using EU assistance more efficiently, adopting and enforcing EU standards, as well as implementing more reforms in the judiciary and fundamental rights and further supporting the fight against organised crime and corruption.

($=0.8021 euro)