Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) Goran Svilanović assessed that the Regional Conference in Vienna is this-year’s most important meeting when it comes to the Western Balkans and BiH.
“Over the past year, ministers of transport, foreign ministers met on a few occasions and prime ministers reached a final agreement. As far as I know, based on the agreement on priority transport corridors, 10 projects will receive direct financial support from the European Union,“ Svilanović told FENA.
According to his assessment, it is expected 600 million euros will be approved at the Summit in Vienna for those projects, and they are direct assistance funds, so some of the projects will maybe commence even before the end of this year.
These funds also refer to projects that BiH proposed, regarding railway and road infrastructure.
He emphasized that representatives of the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank will attend the Summit in Vienna and discuss funds they can secure, but there are also loans.
“When it comes to BiH, proposals that representatives of the Council of Ministers of BiH made in the previous few months have mostly been supported and accepted,“ said Svilanović.
While ministers of economy will talk about structural projects, but also about economic problems which mostly refer to unemployment, economic management and problem of indebtedness, foreign ministers will talk about the European and Balkan problems related to migrants and those in different foreign battlefields who come from “our region“, he explained.
He added that prime ministers of the states will discuss the accession process and the overall political situation in the region, including the unsolved bilateral issues that are causing double damage.
“First they directly affect the reform process on national level by slowing it down, and they especially affect the accession process, by delaying it and slowing it down,“ explained Svilanović.
He emphasized that BiH and Montenegro will take one small step forward by signing border agreement.
(Source: Fena)
