BELGRADE, Serbia

There has been progress in the Western Balkan states' efforts to improve governance and this brings them closer to joining the EU, union's top enlargement official said Thursday.

EU commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy, Stefan Fule, praised the efforts of the nations in the region to strengthen economic governance.

Fule, who will cede his post to Austrian Johannes Hahn when the cabinet of incoming EU President Jean-Claude Juncker takes over in November, announced a program of financial support for the West Balkan candidate countries as well.

"These countries should enjoy the benefits of EU enlargement even before accession," he said, at a conference on "Economy Management" held in Belgrade on Thursday, which hosted  foreign ministers and economy ministers from countries in the region. 

The Balkan countries will be asked to submit their economic reform plans to his directorate-general in the coming year, and every year until 2020.

Fule also expressed his gratitude to ministers of the Balkan countries for their cooperation.

At the meeting, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said that all countries in the region should join the EU.

"For this reason, supporting each other is very important. We should have a lot of time and effort to achieve stability in the region but we have seen in the match between Serbia and Albania that a small incident for destabilization is sufficient. We must do our best to improve cooperation and maintain stability in the region," Dacic said. 

A football match in October between Serbia and Albania was terminated by fan violence, and the event soured relations between the two countries.

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