How to attract the funds from the European funds; is the question that Bosnia and Herzegovina should pay attention to, even in this very early phase of getting closer to the European Union.
Besides the classic assistance programs, as it has earlier been the technical assistance program CARDS, or the one that it’s now available to the countries of the Western Balkans, IPA, new assistance mechanism of the EU, BiH, as a potential candidate country, is offered availability of financial funds for the previously delivered and well done and planned projects.
Advices on how to prepare the projects in a qualitative manner, going from project idea to the final report, for all those, who want to apply for irrevocable funds of the EU, can be found in the recently published book in the issue of the Consultancy house Revicon d.o.o., under the title EU Funds.
This very useful guide, is the first one published by us, has been made with an intention to assist the applicants from BiH in their preparation and final drafting of project applications, and coordinating approved projects, in accordance with methodology, which is being demanded by the European Commission.
According to the Framework Agreement between the European Community and Bosnia and Herzegovina on general principles for BiH participation in the so called programs of the Community, which has inured in January 2007, BiH has a right to participate in more than twenty programs. However, level of the awareness on accessing the European funds in BiH is still very low and potential beneficiaries are not well introduced to the procedures.
Group of authors of the EU Funds book (Jelena Misita, Martina Belić, Gordana Stojanović, Dženita Mutap, Zara Halilović and Branka Peurača) have processed all financial instruments of the EU, which are available to applicants from BiH, with useful advices on how in a right way to apply for irrevocable funds from the EU funds. Significant irrevocable funds, available to legal persons in BiH, by processing necessary documentation and drafting projects, require knowing all project phases, from project proposal to the final report, and the intention of Revicon, by issuing this book, is to improve the usage of funds from the EU funds in our country.
One chapter of this book points out that the European Commission has recognized that in the process of accessing the EU in the countries of the Western Balkans, as well as in BiH, besides applying necessary democratic and institutional reforms, stronger support in fulfilling economic criterions and reaching the socio-economic stability should be better.
“So, the European Commission, in cooperation with the international financial institutions, especially with the EIB, EBRD and CEB, has undertaken certain steps in this direction. By having this in mind, a need for adapting the existing financial instruments of the IPA to the current circumstances has shown up.
Therefore, it is obvious that in the frame of national programs of IPA 2009 and IPA 2010 for BiH, in comparison to the previous national IPA programs (2007 and 2008), when the accent was on the projects that had an aim to implement required reforms in BiH, today’s proposed projects mostly serve to supporting socio-economic development and the level of employment in BiH,” has been stated in the book.
According to data of the European Union Delegation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, our country has since 2007 received through the IPA program around 160 million Euros, and in the period until 2011 the total amount of funds, allocated for BiH, will be increased to 440 million Euros, reports reci.ba.