BIH met the requirements for a tranche of 50 million euros in the form of macro-financial assistance of the EU for its economic stability, and the funds should be operational in December, confirmed the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BIH to Dnevni Avaz.
According to Dnevni Avaz, the Deputy Ministry of Finance of BIH Edita Đapo said that BIH had a task to meet the conditions at the entity and state level that were set out by the European Commission, which worked closely with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Đapo said that the state government met all the conditions prescribed, and were related to the appointment of the head of the Central Harmonization Unit in the BIH Ministry of Finance, showing the public debt of schemes to promote monitoring of the banking sector, the alignment of modalities among the departments and the Agency for Statistics of BiH. She added that the RS Ministry of Finance adopted several required ordinances, and the RS National Assembly the strategy of the pension sector.
“We waited for the FBIH government to draw up a law on fiscal responsibility. However, they made the appropriate amendments to the budget, whose draft was passed in the FBIH Parliament. Now, all the conditions are met and there should be no obstacles in obtaining these funds’’, said Đapo.
She added that the BIH Ministry of Finance and Treasury prepared a request in the coming days that will be sent to the European Commission. The deadline is 8 August.
The EU Delegation to BIH did not want to give an assessment of whether the BIH authorities have fulfilled all the conditions for the 50 million euros aid, on the grounds that the decision would be brought in Brussels after BIH makes a formal request.
“As was the case in the first tranche, the EU would provide a second tranche when BIH meets the necessary conditions. This assistance is in line with the commitment of the 27 member countries to the European perspective of BIH’’, said to Dnevni Avaz the Spokesperson of the EU to BIH Andy McGuffie.
He said that the focus is to help reduce administration and the rationalization of costs, then fiscal consolidation and improving the business and investment environment.
“Such steps would lead to greater competitiveness of the economy, increased trade and production scale, and at the same time would help in curbing the trend of slow economic recovery. All this should result in improving the living conditions for all BIH citizens’’, added McGuffie.
(Source: Dnevni Avaz)
