Svilanovic: Help from EU to arrive in several stages

BRUSSELS - Serbia can count on European Union’s assistance in several stages and based on several grounds, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) Goran Svilanovic said Monday.

“Unfortunately, the damage in Serbia is so huge that it meets the requirements for aid from the EU on several grounds,” Svilanovic told reporters after meeting with International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva in Brussels today.

Svilanovic said that Serbia can count on receiving money from the EU Solidarity Fund that it needs to meet two conditions for - that it is a candidate for membership of the EU and that the damage from the disaster exceeds 0.64 percent of GDP, or EUR 175 million.
“Unfortunately, Serbia meets the second requirement as well,” he said, explaining that Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) cannot apply for the money from the Fund as it is not a membership candidate, and Croatia because damages there are not big enough.

Svilanovic said, however, that an idea is to declare the entire flooded area of the three countries a disaster-hit region and in that way obtain additional money.
“It is possible if there is political will, and I will meet with people from the Office of the Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fuele and associates of (EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy) Catherine Ashton to talk about it tomorrow, " he said.

Svilanovic added that access to EU pre-accession and agricultural funds for rebuilding the country will be open to Serbia.
“These funds will be available through the Red Cross and through the World Food Programme," the RCC quoted Svilanovic as saying in a statement.

"I brought to the commissioner a document...