Implementation of EU funds in Bosnia and Herzegovina was the focus of the visit of the Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enlargement, Christian Danielsson, on 13 March.
In meetings with the Chair of the BiH Council of Ministers, Vjekoslav Bevanda; FBiH Prime Minister, Nermin Nikšić; RS Prime Minister, Željka Cvijanović; and other stakeholders, including from civil society, the Director General discussed how to implement IPA, obstacles to economic development and how disbursements of EU funds to local beneficiaries can be speeded up.
“We looked in particular at eight projects in the total amount of 45 million euro in the area of transport and environment, support for civil society and other issues. I think it was a very useful meeting. We agreed on various steps in order to move ahead and we will meet again in the beginning of April to take stock of progress,” he said.
He also stressed that although BiH was currently lagging behind other countries in the region in the EU integration process, it can still catch up with other aspirants provided that there was a political will to do so.
“Support that the European Commission and the EU give to BiH is substantial. Over the period since 2007 we have up till now 600 million euro that we have programmed for BiH. Projects worth 210 million EUR are being implemented in BiH and additional projects worth 150 million EUR still need to be contracted”, he added.
Action to tackle corruption was also on the agenda.“We had a meeting which started a process to look in particular at how to further address the fight against corruption. This is an addition to the structured dialogue that we already have with BiH with regard to justice, and the objective is to identify concrete action that needs to be taken in order to fight corruption. This is important in general, but it is also very important when it comes to the economy“, he stated.
The full transcript of the press conference held by Mr Danielsson can be found here:
http://archive.europa.ba/News.aspx?newsid=6171&lang=EN
