Representatives of 61 towns/municipalities received agreements at the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad within the Regional Housing Programme (RHP). The Programme foresees construction of apartments, delivering of construction material packages and provision of housing solutions for refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia in these towns/municipalities, through provision of financial assistance for the purchase of rural households.

The EU is the biggest donor of the programme, along with the USA, Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Turkey, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary with the support from OSCE and UNHCR.

Ivica Dacic Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister, First Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Government Commission for Coordination of the Permanent Integration Process of Refugees handed agreements over to towns/municipalities representatives during the official ceremony.

“Through the Programme worth EUR47.5 million, today’s agreements will provide housing solutions for more than 2,000 families,” Dacic said and added that refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina would receive construction material packages or facilities for the purchase of rural households in Serbia.

Minister Dacic explained that RHP included four countries and had a major role and goal in ending the long-standing displacement in the region.

“RHP is a result of the rekindled Sarajevo Process and strengthened environment of trust and cooperation in the region. Provision of every single housing solution brings us a step closer to our final goal, that is the closure of refugee chapter. We will continue to work on this in order to provide refugees with full access to rights and dignified living conditions,” Dacic said.

Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport said that today’s event marked an important step forward in the realisation of RHP and shows that people who lost their homes to conflicts on the territory of ex-Yugoslavia were not forgotten.

“I am very happy to see the progress in project’s implementation and soon we will be able to also see rather concrete results in the form of 2,000 new housing solutions for people who have been waiting on these solutions for over 20 years. The EU remains the main partner and donor in Serbia and other Western Balkans countries in solving the problem of refugees and displaced persons,” Davenport said.

He reminded that once there were over 300 collective centres in Serbia, whereas now there are 10, housing some 1,000 people, and pointed out to the fact that European Union had helped Serbia in taking care of refugees and closure of collective centres.

Davenport said that the EU was the main donor to Regional Housing Programme, and that since 2000, Serbia alone was allocated EUR74 million of assistance for refugees.

“European Union is founded on solidarity among its Members and we showed this kind of solidarity with the countries in the region during last year’s floods,” Davenport said.

Commissioner for Refugees and Migration Vladimir Cucic thanked donors and said that the Commissariat was at the moment working on the provision of 1,492 housing solutions through RHP donor Fund, along with local-self governments, PIU Research and Development and thanks to technical assistance.

“Over the next year or two, our duty will be to provide homes for 2,083 families and thus justify the trust of all the partners who have been generously supporting us from the very beginning of the process of regional cooperation,” Cucic said.

RHP is a joint programme of the Republic of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and the Republic of Croatia, aimed at provision of durable housing solutions for some 27,000 of the most vulnerable refugee families, that is some 74,000 people region-wide. Out of this, Serbia hosts 16,780 families, or some 45,000 people. Programme’s total values is EUR584 million and it is scheduled to run for five years.

Handing over of the agreements was also attended by ambassadors of donor countries, Stefаn Selen Deputy Director General of the DG for Loans and Social Development of the CoE Development Bank, Hans Friedrich Soder Head of UNHCR Office in Serbia, Michael Uyehara Acting Head of OSCE Mission to Serbia, Gorаn Kvrgic Director of PIU Research and Development Ltd. Belgrade, Milos Vucevic Mayor of Novi Sad and many other guests.