Serbia obtained 70.5m EUR from EU pre-accession funds

The representatives of the Government of Serbia and the European Union signed the agreement today (March 22, 2010) in Novi Sad on the use of 70.5m EUR from the pre-accession funds (IPA) for year 2009.

The financial agreement, which anticipates financing of nine projects, was signed by the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia for European Integrations, Božidar Đelić, and the Head of the EU Delegation in Serbia, Vincent Degert.

Major share of the money is intended for reconstruction of the Žeželj bridge in Novi Sad, support to the development of the Directorate for confiscation of illegally acquired property, national program of control in the prevention and detection of breast and cervical cancer, as well as for eradication of classical swine fever and rabies.

Đelić said that those projects would make it possible for the citizens of Serbia to have European future. The most important of them is construction of road-railway bridge in the location of former Žeželj bridge, which was torn down during the NATO bombing in 1999.

- In that way we are building the future of Novi Sad, Vojvodina and Serbia because we are developing crucial railway corridor, which will soon become the main European corridor after Turkey finishes construction of the underground tunnel on the Bosporus - said Đelić.

He announced that it would be known very soon which projects would be financed from the IPA funds in 2010. He pointed out that, in the next two years, Serbia would strive to provide the funding for minimum one capital infrastructure project each year.

- We are already preparing the projects for year 2011 and we will try to obtain much more than 200m EUR per year from the EU starting from 2012. Although it is already a significant amount of money, we are of the opinion that the countries candidates do not get enough money before they enter the EU and that they get too much once they become members - Đelić estimated.

Reminding that the EU set aside 1.4bn EUR for Serbia through IPA funds prior to 2013, Degert said that the agreement concerned the second part of the program for year 2009 since Serbia had already obtined 100m EUR worth of budget aid.

- I hope that the tenders and the works on these nine projects will start very soon and that the IPA projects for Serbia for year 2010 will be approved soon. I see this as gradual changes that bring Serbia closer to Europe - said Degert.

He estimated that the construction of the Žeželj bridge was very important for Serbia because it was situated on road - railway Corridor 10, which connected Serbia with Europe.

Construction of the new Žeželj bridge will cost 60m EUR. Half of the money is provided by the European Union, the Province will set aside 20m EUR, while the city of Novi Sad will give 10m EUR.

The structure of the bridge will be made of metal and its look will be similar to the look of the old bridge. It will be 470 meters long and 25 meters wide and it will include a two-gage railway and two road lanes.

According to the today's announcement, the tender documentation is almost ready and the international tender will be announced very soon. The plan is that the bridge be finished prior to end of 2012.