How much money from the European Union Investment Plan for the Western Balkans can Serbia count on and which projects will be financed?
The director of the office of the European Investment Bank for the Western Balkans, Dubravka Negre, spoke about this for TV Prva.
The plan envisions a nine billion-euro grant.
“This is a sum that will give a great impetus to the development of the region, and of course Serbia, and the long-term recovery from the consequences of the pandemic. The goal of these funds is to initiate the transition to an environmentally friendly and sustainable digital economy.”
According to her, the funds have significantly increased compared to the previous period, ie the last seven years, which shows above all the commitment of the European Union to this region and the need to support economic and social development.
“Apart from the mobilization of those nine billion euros, additional funds will be placed through the guarantee fund for the Western Balkans, which should and aims to encourage investments in the next seven years, worth 20 billion euros, in synergy with the most favorable loans and funds of our group, that is, the group of the European Investment Bank,” said Negre.
She emphasized that the distribution of funds will be in accordance with the planned projects, some that are already in the plan and, of course, new projects in Serbia and the region.
“First of all, it is about investments for the reconstruction of the railway network, the railway corridor. We are talking about Corridor 10, which should more efficiently connect Serbia with Croatia, but also Serbia with Northern Macedonia, Belgrade, Nis and Pristina,” Negre said.
She adds that work will be done on improving the navigability of the Danube, which is also a trans-European corridor, and which is very important because it represents the transport of goods and transport in a cleaner way.
“So far, no investments have been made in the rivers in the region and their navigability. We are already present at the realization of that investment with 100 million euros and 14 million euros in donations. So, additional grants are planned to continue investing in this project,” said Negre.
As she says, investments will also be made in increasing digitalization, in order to raise the entire economy to a higher technological level.
“In that sense, we plan to sign a new financial framework for the introduction of high-speed Internet in schools throughout Serbia in a very short period of time. Our investment alone will be around 65 million euros and of course in cooperation with the budget of the Republic of Serbia,” said Dubravka Negre.
Also, an important focus will be on the decarbonisation of this region, on the transition to a clean, more energy efficient economy.
“They will invest in renewable energy projects, in everything that will help bring this region closer and join the EU when it comes to a cleaner economy, because Europe has committed itself to becoming the first continent that will not have harmful emissions by 2050. These are great commitments and plans, as well as large and very expensive projects that need to be implemented in Europe,” said Negre.
She added that they are already focused on the private sector in this period.
“In the last six months, we have signed new financing, just to help small and medium enterprises. So, businessmen who have a liquidity problem, who have a problem maintaining the level of business given the economic crisis that hit the region and Serbia due to health circumstances. We have recently made new investments worth 30 million euros that will help entrepreneurs in rural areas, encourage women’s entrepreneurship, which will help those who are struggling to cope with the crisis. We will continue these investments and the package of this assistance will also direct a good part of funds to that sector, to encourage private investment,” Negre said, B92 reports.
