March 25 (SeeNews) - The European Union plans to provide 373 million euro ($403 million) to the Western Balkans countries to support their social and economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis, a senior EU official said said on Wednesday.
The EU is also allocating 38 million euro financing for immediate support to the health sectors of the countries of the Western Balkans, EU enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said in his Twitter account.
"I wrote to Prime Ministers of our Western Balkans partners to confirm we stand by the region in fight against the coronavirus outbreak," Varhelyi said.
The EU support for the economic recovery of Serbia will amount to 78 million euro, while 15 million euro will be provided for the immediate purchase and transport of medical equipment, the head of the EU delegation in Belgrade, Sem Fabrizi, said in a separate tweet on Wednesday.
Earlier on Wednesday, the EU ambassador to North Macedonia, Samuel Zbogar, said the EU has pledged to provide up to 66 million euro to help the country fight the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on the economy.
The EU ambassador to Montenegro, Aivo Orav, said on Wednesday that the union is designing a 50 million euro programme to support the government Podgorica in tacckling the consequences of the coronavirus crisis. In addition, the EU is providing 3 million euro for immediate help to the Montenegrin health sector, Orav said.
($ = 0.926068 euro)