EU funding news from Welcomeurope

European funds Related EU Grant Loans Programme(s):  Support to participation of South-Eastern European countries in the stabilisation and association process (”Closed programme”)

A new social housing scheme comprising 24 family homes was handed over to the Municipality of Berane by representatives of the European Agency for Reconstruction, the European Commission, UNHCR and the German NGO HELP

The event was attended by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Affairs, the Bureau for the Care of Refugees, CARITAS of Luxemburg and members of the Roma community in Berane.

Vuko Golubovic, the mayor of Berane municipality, announced that the local authorities will continue their support for refugees and displaced persons by creating employment opportunities for them in the municipality. He added that his intention is to ensure that the investment in the “New Riverside” Social Housing Scheme will become sustainable. According to Mr Golubovic, this will only be possible if the already significant integration of the Roma displaced persons in the local labour market will be further enhanced.

The “New Riverside Social Housing Scheme” is the first of its kind in Montenegro, established with assistance largely provided by the European Union’s CARDS Programme at the request of the Montenegrin Bureau for the Care of Refugees and the municipality of Berane.

It is part of a wider CARDS project, with a starting budget of € 2.5 million, designed to help the Montenegrin Government implement the integration component of its “National Strategy for Resolving the Issues of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons”. It comprises not only housing solutions but other social infrastructure such as a home for the elderly as well as income generating activities for displaced persons, refugees and socially vulnerable Montenegrins.

The programme is implemented by the German NGO HELP and co-funded by HELP and UNHCR. Other EU member state charities such as the Dutch Grabovac have added funds to individual programme components. The Berane component of the programme has, in addition, benefited from financial contributions from CARITAS Luxemburg and the Municipality of Berane. Thanks to the catalytic effect of CARDS and the dynamism of the civil society organization in charge, the total value of the program, and thus its benefits, have grown to near €4 million.

There are approximately 25,000 refugees and displaced persons in Montenegro, or 4% of the total population.

European funds Related EU Grant Loans Programme(s):  Support to participation of South-Eastern European countries in the stabilisation and association process (”Closed programme”)

As part of the EAR’s municipal support programme for 27 municipalities in north-eastern Serbia, €4 million has been allocated to support a major development project to construct an industrial zone at Ecka near the town of Zrenjanin, “capital” of the Banat region

Zrenjanin, with a population of 80,000, is the third largest town in the Serbia’s northern province of Vojvodina. As a whole the municipality has 132,000 inhabitants and has pursued a very successful development policy over the past few years. One industrial zone has already been set up, but is now entirely occupied, and the municipality thus applied to the Agency’s MSPNES programme for assistance to establish a second zone at Ečka on the outskirts of the town.

The project was promoted at a press event in Zrenjanin on 2 July. This was attended by a European Union delegation consisting of Ambassadors Josep Lloveras (European Commission) and Ron Van Dartel (Netherlands), and, from the Agency’s Belgrade Centre, Daniel Giuglaris (head of office) and Vassilis Petrides (programme manager). Welcoming them all, Mayor Goran Knežević stated that the visit affirmed EU support for the town as a place of long-established European values. Expressing thanks for the donation, he highlighted its significance for this industrially-developed and geographically important part of Serbia, and stated that construction of the Zone would create about 8,000 new jobs.

Presenting details of the project to the delegation and the press, deputy mayor Predrag Stankov pointed out that the Ečka project had been one of 105 submitted by the 27 municipalities covered by the EAR’s north-east Serbia programme. The Agency had decided to support only four of these projects from the grant fund attached to the programme, and the new industrial zone had come top of the list – hence the generous level of EU funding. The town had already invested €2.2 million, the EU would provide a further €4 million, and the Serbian National Investment Programme an additional €1.3 million. This budget would be spent on building and connecting the complete infrastructure needed for the 72-hectare zone – networks for water supply, sewage disposal and surface water drainage, telecommunications, gas and electrical systems, roads, security fencing.

Daniel Giuglaris confirmed that the Zrenjanin project had been chosen on the basis of a detailed feasibility study, and had met all the necessary criteria – it had met stipulated technical requirements, justified social and economic demands, secured co-financing from other sources, and proved its economic viability. It would boost the economic development of the town and the region, and thus fitted well into the overall purpose of the Agency’s municipal support programmes. Since 2001, there had been three of these, focusing on the east, south and south-west of Serbia, but this, the fourth, in the north-east of the country was by far the biggest. Covering the three districts of the Banat region, it also included the Branicevo district centred on Požarevac south of the Danube. It thus completed the huge geographical circle of municipal support programmes financed by the CARDS programme.

The north-east support programme, Giuglaris went on, included a grant fund totalling €13.5 million for financing major priority investment projects such as the Ečka Zone. The tendering procedure to find a contractor for this was now well advanced and it was expected to let the contract by the end of August.

The European Agency for Reconstruction has provided EC funds for the recently completed rehabilitation works which have restored one 18th century guesthouse building back to its original state

The Emin-Gjiku complex of houses is one of the best examples of 18th century Kosovo architecture left in Pristina. Emin-Gjiku is an ancillary ethnographic and cultural centre of the Museum of Kosovo. The European Agency for Reconstruction has provided EC funds for the recently completed rehabilitation works which have restored one 18th century guesthouse building back to its original state. It is intended to give local and international visitors an idea of domestic lifestyle in Kosovo over two centuries ago.

The general objective of the rehabilitation programme was to revive and draw attention to Kosovo’s cultural heritage as a way to promote interest in culture and building heritage and promote links between Kosovo’s cultural institutions and European cultural networks.

This project benefited from the EU support provided through the European Agency for Reconstruction and by the French NGO “Patrimone Sans Frontières” (PSF). The EAR funded rehabilitation, while PSF provided professional supervision.

The European Union, through the European Agency for Reconstruction, has contributed substantially to the restoration of historical buildings in Kosovo. It has already managed the completed restoration of five kullas (Albanian castle-houses), in the municipalities of Deçan/Decane and Pejë/Pec, and historical Ottoman house known as Gospodarska Kuca-Saraj in the Serb village of Hoca e Madhe/Velika Hoca, an important part of Kosovo’s cultural heritage, the Konak and dormitory in Deçan/Decane monastery and the ongoing reconstruction of the seminary and archbishop’s residence in Prizren/Prizren.

The EU is providing €1.4 million to UNICEF for a new 30-month project “Transforming Residential Institutions for Children and Developing Sustainable Alternatives”

The project will be managed by the European Agency for Reconstruction and implemented by UNICEF in partnership with the Serbian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. Local communities and civil society organisations will also participate.

The project will help to ensure full capacity of the child care system in responding to the needs of the most vulnerable groups of children in Serbia. It is expected that the project will contribute in reducing the number of children in residential institutions in Serbia by 25% up to 2011.The assistance carried out over the next years will focus on:

- Transforming residential institutions into child-centred community-based services which respond to local needs
- Strengthening and expanding the existing foster care system
- Developing the professional capacities needed to support child care.

The placement of disadvantaged children - without parental care, with developmental difficulties or with behavioural problems - in large residential institutions is one of the most potent mechanisms contributing to social exclusion in Serbia. According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy 2006 Annual Report, close to 3,000 children reside in 25 large institutions located all over the country.

Through its National Investment Programme (NIP), the Serbian government has already committed €1 million in 2008 and earmarked a further €3 million in 2009 for the reconstruction and refurbishment of residential institutions for children in need.

In collaboration with the Serbian Mine Action Centre, the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) has launched a project to help the Serbian government tackle the problem of locating unexploded ordnance in the Danube and Sava rivers.

The project is funded by the European Union.
Ships on the Danube river
Ships on the Danube river (large photo)

The project involves a survey and search of parts of the two rivers, which will be carried out according to international rules, regulations and standards. Operations will be completed in 10 months within a first €2.3 million contract. This phase will allow to identify what unexploded ordnance is present and where it is located. The second contract, worth €0.3 million, is for supervision of this work. It will also include preparation of tender documents for actual clearance operations, based on the information produced by the first project. This second phase will last 12 months.

Unexploded ordnance still poses a hazard worldwide.There are countless examples of civilians tampering with unexploded ordnance that is many years old - often with fatal results.

European funds Related EU Grant Loans Programme(s):  Assistance to the Candidate countries to support their progressive compliance with EU rules and policies, including the acquis communautaire if necessary, in preparation for their accession

The Head of the European Commission’s Delegation to the Republic of Serbia Josep M. LLOVERAS and the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar DJELIĆ will sign a Financing Agreement on 4 April 2008 in Belgrade which will deliver €165 million of non refundable assistance to Serbia

The funds from the 2007 Instrument for Pre Accession Assistance (IPA) will be used for reforms in the health sector, reduction of pollution from the Nikola Tesla power plant, measures to improve the safety of traffic on the Danube, strengthening of municipal administrations, balanced regional development, support to internally displaced persons and refugees, the establishment of the Ombudsman office and other projects.

The 2007 IPA Programme, among others includes the following key projects:

- The Emissions Reduction from Nikola Tesla thermal power plant is a major project for Serbia in order to fulfil itsenvironmental obligations under the Energy Community Treaty. The project will lead to the reconstruction of two electrostatic precipitators (air filters) and provide the technical assistance and works to address this need.
- The Health Sector Reform Emergency Medical Services will improve Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Serbia as part of the overall reform of the health system. The project will be conducted on a national level and it will include the purchase of emergency vehicles, training machines in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš and Kragujevac and training for the staff who will use the vehicles and the other equipment.
- The Municipal Support Programme will support administrative reform at municipal level, improve local services to citizens through Citizens Assistance Centres and enhance local economic development by strengthening local organisations, the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities and local and central government cooperation.
- The Support to Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) project is aimed at the distribution of construction material sets, income generation actions and the purchase village houses and garden plots for persons that have not been involved so far in any type of assistance. The project will also provide free legal aid and assistance to individuals who wish to return to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina..
- The Regional Economic and Social Development Programme will increase the capacity of central government to design and implement an integrated regional development policy in Serbia. Regional Development Agencies, Municipalities and other local stakeholders will be supported to implement national regional policies and actions.
- The Danube River Information System (RIS) will enhance the speed, the safety and the efficiency of traffic on the Danube by building a dedicated RIS (telematic information service). This consists of a major project for the country since Serbia has an extensive inland waterway network comprising of three international rivers and the Danube River with its 588 km passing through the country is considered to be one of the most important components of transport infrastructure in the entire region.

Since 2000, the European Union has through various non-returnable assistance programmes and credit lines provided over €2 billion to Serbia and another €1 billion has been tentatively earmarked for reform assistance for 2007 – 2011.