Minister urges "caution with donation figures"

Minister urges "caution with donation figures"

BRUSSELS -- The figure of EUR 1.7bn pledged as assistance for Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina at the donors’ conference in Brussels is impressive, says Jadranka Joksimović.

However - "it should be interpreted with caution as only a small portion of that sum is fresh money," the minister without Portfolio in charge of EU told Tanjug late on Wednesday.

“We need to separate direct grants from loans and look at the conditions under which we will obtain these loans,” said Joksimović.

Joksimović pointed out that part of the money promised for the rehabilitation after the catastrophic floods that hit the two countries in May had already been granted to Serbia for some other purposes earlier, and today, it had only been redirected for flooding disaster recovery.

She pointed out that through the pre-accession funds, the Solidarity Fund and bilateral aid, the EU remained the biggest donor to Serbia when it came to assistance in efforts to handle the consequences of the flooding.

"Energy

Director of the Serbian government's Office for assistance and recovery of the flooded areas Marko Blagojević said late on Wednesday that the donor conference in Brussels achieved more successful than expected and that Serbia will use the raised funds primarily for the reconstruction of its energy system and agricultural recovery.

The atmosphere was very positive and a number of small donors appeared than we originally expected, Blagojević told Tanjug toward the conclusion of the Wednesday donor conference to raise aid for Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina which were hit by surging floods in May.

Many donors released only the total...