EU helps Serbia and BIH in flood recovery

A woman pushes her bicycle past piles of flood debris in Obrenovac, 32 kilometres west of Belgrade, on June 4th. [AFP]

EU helps Serbia and BIH in flood recovery

Assistance from the international community improves bilateral relations, regional co-operation and the EU integration process.

In order to help overcome consequences of devastating floods in May, the European Commission gathered 1.8 billion euros in relief funding for Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) during a donor conference organised in Brussels.

The July 16th event gathered delegations from more than 60 countries, civil society and private sector representatives and 23 international organisations.

"The conference once again illustrated the great solidarity for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and managed to overall mobilise pledges of 809.2 euros million for Bosnia and Herzegovina and 995.2 million euros for Serbia," the EU said in a statement.

According to President Tomislav Nikolic, who led Serbian delegation at the conference, the flood caused damage worth about 1.5 billion euros in Serbia alone.

"Serbia is grateful that you have responded and showed a readiness to impart the much-needed support and help my country and Bosnia and Herzegovina," Nikolic said during the conference. "I expect that you will thoroughly inform your governments of the consequences of the floods and that you will, as much as you can, find a way to provide us with adequate assistance."

Twenty-three member states offered humanitarian assistance during the flood, and 800 relief workers were deployed to the two countries, making the flood recovery the largest relief effort by the EU to date.

Dejan Jovovic, a member of the Scientific Society of Economists of Serbia and former adviser for the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, said that the EU help encourages officials and...

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