PM: Serbia would stand no chance in crisis without EU help

BELGRADE - Without EU assistance, Serbia would stand no chance of overcoming the crisis caused by unprecedented floods, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has said, stressing that Serbian citizens will have to do most of the work towards the country's recovery.

At late Tuesday's press conference with Kristalina Georgieva, the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Vucic said that most of the support has been - and will be - provided by the EU.

"Everyone else combined will not provide as much assistance as the EU, but the Serbian citizens must know that it is up to us to do most of the work. We are endlessly grateful - we would not stand a chance without the EU," Vucic said.

He declined to give an estimate of the aid to be provided, which he said would be unfair to the EU partners, and added that the initial damage assessments need to be seen first.

First and foremost, it is assistance approved by the Commissioner, but also money from the EU Solidarity Fund and IPA funds that Serbia has not used in the previous years, Vucic said.
"In order to get money from the EU fund, the damage should exceed 0.64 percent of the GDP and, unfortunately, we have qualified for this assistance," Vucic said.

As the amount of this aid will certainly not be sufficient, the IPA funds Serbia did not use in 2011, 2012 and 2013 may be approved, Vucic said.
"If anyone thinks that we will solve all the problems by taking money from other coffers, that is not going to happen, but, put all together, those will be the funds that will help us deal more quickly and more easily with the enormous problems resulting from the catastrophic floods," Vucic said.

There will be...