Oslobođenje: The European Commission, along with the state coordinators for the IPA programs, works on the project of receiving of 40 million Euros of an urgent assistance for moderating the consequences of economic crisis.
"The goal is to reduce the effects of global economic crisis. We cooperate on that with the state coordinators for the IPA programs, and the decision on financing itself has not been adopted yet. This program will especially be concentrated on the projects related to development of small and middle companies, opening the new work positions in a sense of infrastructural works.
We do all these projects in cooperation with international financial institutions. Those 40 million Euros will additionally assist BiH to access the program of assistance of even 250 million Euros. Those will be the funds through different programs ensured by the European bank for renovation and development (EBRD), European investment bank (EIB) and German developmental bank" has been said for Oslobođenje by the chief of the European Commission Delegation in BiH, Dimitris Kourkoulas.
Are there special conditions for receiving the mentioned funds?
"There are no new or special conditions; those are generally all conditions for approving and using the IPA funds. I point out that none of this has yet been approved. We must go though the procedure of approving and confirming by all the countries-members of the EU in Brussels, but our goal is that all of this gets finished in order for us to begin realization of financial assistance in September."
Crisis as alibi
In what extent will economic crisis impact the enlargement of the EU onto the countries of West Balkans?
"I agree that a crisis impacts the EU, but I do not believe that it will have a negative effect on policies of further enlargement, out of a simple reason because the enlargement of the EU onto the countries of West Balkans was never a financial question. Financial expenditures for the EU themselves, in order for it to include these countries, are much negligible. In addition, there is also an economic interest of Europe to integrate this part in it as well. The only thing which could distance a country from the EU is inability of its governments to fulfill all conditions which have been set, or inability to implement the policies and laws of the EU. To be more concrete, those who in any way disable the implementation of reform in a sense of the European perspective of BiH, should never use the economic crisis as an alibi for non-joining the EU, because the crisis is an additional interest to make that process quicker."
Is there a danger for these funds to fail?
"Yes, that is possible, but since we participate in deciding and selection of projects, we will try to select the qualitative projects and proposed on time. We do not have a reason to worry about the projects because we have started to work on them on time. Once they get approved, we will need a full cooperation of domestic governments in order for them to get implemented."
Are there some other programs of assistance of the international institutions for overcoming the economic crisis which BiH could ask for?
"As I have already said, these programs are intended only for BiH, in order for it to deal with a negative impact of crisis easily; in addition to that, projects of regional character have also been planned. Those are the projects in process; what has been allocated for BiH is those 40 million and 250 million which have been separated for BiH by the international financial organizations. Besides that, we talk about the possibility of launching the certain projects which would be of a regional character. That is still not concrete and in this moment I cannot confirm if they will be realized. Also, we have a plan to launch the program by which the technical assistance would be provided to the central banks of countries in order for them to deal with crisis easily, but that has not been confirmed yet."
In certain regional programs for moderating the consequences of economic crisis, there is no BiH. Do you think that BiH governments pay enough attention to economic crisis?
"We still do not know how long the time period is and how deep the crisis will impact the economy in BiH. Because of that reason, I would not want someone to understand me as a person who reads the lectures to the BiH governments. But, if we take into consideration what other countries do, there is always the additional space for more measures, especially because I think that the crisis here will be serious. All the social consequences are the ones that I worry about the most. Because of that, I think that all the measures which can be undertaken in order to solve the social issues and improve the social coordination in BiH are more than useful."
Economic crisis will probably slow down the economic integration of BiH, will that also slow the process of joining the European Union?
"There is not any connection between these questions; economic integration is a lack of integration of economy inside BiH. Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot become a part of integral market of the EU as long as whole BiH does not become an integral market."