January 6 (SeeNews) - The European Union delegation to Serbia said that an additional 166.4 million euro ($176.3 million) will be granted to the country to facilitate its accession process.
Serbia will be able to use these funds over the next three to four years to stimulate competitiveness and innovation, back local development, finance participation in EU programmes and support action plans on rule of law and fundamental rights, the EU delegation said in a press release on Thursday.
“This new support shows just how serious we are about Serbia’s future in the EU. We will continue helping to modernise Serbia and bringing concrete benefits to citizens,” the head of the delegation, Michael Davenport, said in the statement.
The funds are non-repayable and come from the 2016 annual allocation of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA), the delegation added.
The EU is the major partner for Serbia in providing non-repayable assistance, with more than 3 billion euro extended since 2001 and up to 1 billion euro over the next four years.
Serbia has achieved macroeconomic stability, stimulating economic growth and accelerating the reform of public administration, but still needs to do more to strengthen the rule of law and the fight against corruption and organised crime, the European Commission said in November in its latest enlargement progress report on the country.
($ = 0.943977 euro)