Serbia and Sweden signed agreement on development cooperation - our country to get annual aid of EUR 12m prior to 2012

Serbian Minister of Finance Diana Dragutinović and Krister Bringeus, Swedish Ambassador to Serbia, signed the agreement today (May 4, 2010) on development cooperation, according to which Sweden will be granting annual aid of EUR 12m to Serbia prior to 2012.

The money will be used for programs and projects in the domain of society democratization, human rights and environment protection, sustainable development, gender equality and European integrations.

Dragutinović expressed gratitude to Sweden at the press conference for helping Serbia even at the time of the crisis. As she pointed out, that country donated total of EUR 106m to Serbia in the period 2001-2009.

- Thanks to that aid, the Republic Statistics Agency synchronized its data processing with the EU standards, the work of courts and police were improved, the environment protection projects were implemented, as well as the projects to help refugees and the Roma people - said Ms. Dragutinović.

She also noted that through similar assistance programs with other states, Serbia had received EUR 3.2bn since 2001.

The projects for which Swedish donations are provided are being implemented through Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).

According to Bringeus, Sweden supports Serbia's EU integration, which requires, as he pointed out, "much political energy in Serbia".

He pointed out that it was in the interest of Serbia to have good relations with Kosovo and not have "black hole" in its neighborhood. He also said that "two sides in war with each other can not be admitted to the EU".

As he added, there are 250,000 citizens of Serbian origin living in Sweden.