The European Union has continuously supported economic development and employment in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through the project “Support to Local Employment Partnerships”, worth EUR 4 million, the EU has supported formal employment and job creation in order to improve Bosnia and Herzegovina’s business environment and economic competitiveness.
“This project is a follow up to what we have heard from local communities, and what I have personally heard by visiting some 40 municipalities in the last year and a half. There is a need for local initiatives to support employment and, through this project, 27 municipalities have been working together with 19 local employment partnerships to support employment,” said Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina and EU Special Representative in BiH.
“Through this project, more than 1,600 unemployed persons have been trained and over 550 have a new job. The local level is where much of the economy of this country lies and where jobs should therefore be created. This project has enabled us to match the real needs of the private sector, which has to grow and become much stronger for the country to move closer to the EU. Local ownership of the entire process has proven to be key to the project’s success,” stressed Ambassador Wigemark.
“I am very pleased with the project results and especially its competitive nature. We received 160 applications from municipalities and different stakeholders, out of which 19 were accepted and financed,” said Markus Pilgrim, Regional Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Decent Work Technical Support team and Country Office for Central and Eastern Europe, adding that the concept of Local Employment Partnerships was developed by the European Commission in the 1990s and adapted by the ILO to suit the needs of BiH.
Representatives of Local Employment Partnerships signed a Memorandum of Understanding during the project’s final conference, as a statement of their commitment to the continuation of cooperation and support to employment at the local level. Through programmes and projects aiming to strengthen the socio-economic development of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the European Union is continually working on increasing the standard of living and well-being of citizens.
