After a stringent selection and evaluation process of applications, the European Union Floods Recovery Programme has selected 56 Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 24 municipalities across the flooded areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina to receive an enterprise recovery grant. The selected SMEs will be provided with a total of more than 1.43 million EUR (2.8 million BAM) in financial support from the European Union.
Through provision of these grants, the European Union aims to support the retention of jobs endangered by the damages caused by the May floods; the productive capacities of the SMEs; and the generation of new employment opportunities in flood-affected areas. The overall goal is to retain and generate up to 2,000 jobs.
SMEs operating in production industries were eligible to apply for the grants through a public call in the municipalities of Maglaj, Odžak, Domaljevac-Šamac, Orašje, Tuzla, Sanski Most, Živinice, Zenica, Srebrenik, Lukavac, Žepče, Bijeljina, Šamac, Doboj, Prijedor, Banja Luka, Modriča, Laktaši, Srbac, Šekovici, Vukosavlje, Donji Žabar, Čelinac, Brčko.
A total of 458 applications were submitted, and the following criteria were used in the evaluation process: (i) The company suffered damages to its key productive assets in the floods; (ii) the legal entity is in private ownership and engaged in production and/or service activities; (iii) the company employs five or more employees; (iv) the company has commercial linkages with suppliers, or a number of other SMEs and micro-producers; (v) the company has had a positive business result in the last fiscal year; and (vi) the company has a certificate issued by fiscal authorities on regular payments of all taxes and levies.
The selection process had two phases, comprising compliance checks and evaluation of the application against the selection criteria, and field verification visits. Based on the findings, the evaluation committee managed by the UNDP in BiH (as the lead implementing partner) ranked the applications, and proposed a list of SMEs to be funded based on the scores attained. The decision of the evaluation committee is final, but any grant award is subject to satisfying the conditions and requirements of continuous verification and due-diligence processes. Should verification visits show any irregularities between the information submitted in the application and the actual situation, the grants may be withdrawn. All grantees will be required to co-finance the EU Floods Recovery Programme investment.
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