The Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Sem Fabrizi, together with Serbian Minister of Agriculture Branislav Nedimovic, attended today the launch of the EUR8 million EU-funded project “Macva: Sava-Drina”.
EU Ambassador Fabrizi said that, thanks to the project, critical points on the 16km-long embankment would be reinforced. The sections in question, he said, are the ones stretching from Drenova to Cevrntija and from Banovo Brdo to Crna Bara. They are part of the major embankment, Fabrizi pointed out, noting that “a system is only as solid as its weakest points.” According to him, “the EU is proud to have a chance to cooperate with Serbian authorities.” He reminded that last Monday, the Ministry of Defence was presented with an EU donation in the form of the state-of-the-art flood risk mapping equipment and technology. “Like I said, it is better to invest a Euro in prevention, than eight Euros in reconstruction and natural disaster relief,” he noted. He said that a lot has been done since the 2014 floods, adding that the EU is proud to have been one of the main partners in that effort, investing EUR172 million.
Nedimovic said that “during the floods, people were mostly focused on Obrenovac, while the truth is that these sections in Sabac were the ones protecting the majority of all major economic, agricultural and human potentials downstream. People tend to take the Sava for granted,” Nedimovic said, describing the Sava River as “strange” and adding that “the project carries considerable weight and proves that we have drawn lessons from the 2014 floods.”
