Serbia's European integrations to be supported with 40m EUR

- The Government of Switzerland will back the process of European integrations of Serbia by financing 40m EUR worth of the program of cooperation within next four years - said Beatrice Mayer, the Director of the Swiss Office for Cooperation with Serbia.

As she pointed out while presenting the new "Strategy for Cooperation with Serbia 2010-2013", future activities within that program are from four main fields - economic development, rule of low and democracy, education and energy efficiency and renewable energy.

- Intensive cooperation between the two sides lasts for nearly 20 years now, and the value of Swiss donations to Serbia since 1991 has reached the amount of about 200m EUR - said Ms. Mayer.

The Ambassador of Switzerland to Serbia, Erwin Hofer, said that the most important aim of the cooperation between the two countries through aforementioned programs was the support to the process of Serbia's integration into the European Union (EU) and improvement of its chances for entering the Union.

Hofer said that the cooperation between the two countries in the following period would include two components - social and economic - and explained that the social part concerned greater social inclusion in the society and reduction of poverty in the country.

He explained that the economic component primarily concerned provision of help to Serbia to become more competitive in the market. He pointed out that competitiveness "is crucial for quick integration into the EU", as well as very significant after the country "becomes a full-right member".

Hofer pointed to traditionally good relations between Serbia and Switzerland and added that bilateral political cooperation in 2009 was "very intensive" and that, among the rest, the presidents of the two countries had met twice during the previous year.

According to Hofer, the cooperation between the two countries was also improved in many other fields, including the fight against organized crime.

The Assistant Minister of Finance, Gordana Lazarević, pointed to decades-long cooperation between the two countries, which is constantly improving, although it went through different phases.

She said that, although Switzerland was not a member of EU, "it behaves as if it is" and helped Serbia whenever European funds "were unable to", especially in the field of education, in which Switzerland is one of the leading partners of our country.