Delegates of official Brussels came to Belgrade to talk about financial aid to Serbia

The Technical Mission of European Commission has arrived in Belgrade in scope of preparations for start of implementation of new program of financial aid of EU to countries candidates and potential candidates for membership (IPA) starting from January 1.

IPA program (Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance) is the new financial instrument of EU for period 2007-2013 and it will unite former five pre-accession financial instruments: PHARE, ISPA, SAPARD, pre-accession instrument for Turkey and CARD, which was intended for western Balkans.

With IPA, EU will annually set aside 500m EUR for countries that are in the process of stabilization and pre-accession. How much will which country get will depend on the worthiness of the projects they submit to the European Commission.

At this moment, Serbia is qualified to obtain means on the basis of two of total of five fields of IPA, which include support to the training of the State administration, education and strengthening of infrastructure.

Signing of the agreement on stabilization and EU joining would make it possible for Serbia to have broader access to these means, whereas the obtaining of status of candidate for membership would mean possibility of access to the means from the large-pre-accession funds of EU.