Opening the Fifth National Conference on Cross-Border Cooperation Minister without portfolio in charge of European integration Jadranka Joksimovic said Serbia was engaged in the implementation of eight cross-border cooperation programmes with Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia and BiH, whereas Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport said that EUR90 million were allocated for 800 cross-border cooperation projects since 2004.
“We underline the importance of regional cooperation, good neighbourly relations and local development, and the best way to achieve these things is to work with those who have already learnt those lessons in the process of EU integration,” Joksimovic said.
Ambassador Michael Davenport said that since 2004, 500 entities were given grants worth EUR90 million in total for 800 projects whose results were, as he put it, “unmeasurable: from the reconstruction of schools, cultural institutions, sports courts, the support provided to emerging entrepreneurs and the establishment of business incubators to the promotion of tourism and flood prevention assistance,” Davenport said and added that those projects were directly beneficial to everyday lives of residents of border regions. Also, these projects have encouraged people, organisations and municipalities on both sides of the border to think, plan and act together which in itself was a major success, he said.
In previous two years, he recalled, the EU Delegation and the Serbian European Integration Office have opened two calls for proposals within Serbia-Croatia and Serbia-BiH cross-border cooperation programme worth EUR3.6 million each. EU Ambassador also announced: “We are currently supporting the process of contracting and funding of eight major projects dealing with flood prevention in Vojvodina and West Serbia.” These projects, according to him, will commence in late November 2016 at the latest.
Davenport reminded that Serbia received grants for the aftermath of 2014 floods to the tune of EUR170 million.
Ambassador also said that Serbia, Croatia and BiH took part in a project worth EUR1.2 million in 2015 and 2016 thanks to which specialised equipment was purchased for wildfire monitoring and suppression in Loznica, Valjevo and Bajina Basta as well as regions along the border with BiH, as well as equipment for detection and removal of unexploded artillery and other hazardous materials from riverbeds in Novi Sad, Apatin and the region along the border with Croatia.
Serbian European Integration Office said that by 2020, Serbia would have had more than EUR254 million at its disposal to implement six cross-border programmes and two programmes of trans-national cooperation.
The Serbia-Montenegro cross-border cooperation programme will be funded with EUR8.4 million, Hungary-Serbia programme will receive EUR65.1, Romania-Serbia EUR74.9 million, EUR28.9 million will be allocated to Bulgaria-Serbia CBC programme, whereas Croatia-Serbia programme will be earmarked with EUR34.2 million.
When it comes to programmes of trans-national cooperation, EUR15.7 million and EUR19.8 million will be allocated for Adriatic-Ionian and the Danube programmes, respectively.
