December 17 (SeeNews) - Serbia's government has signed a contract to receive 97 million euro ($110 million) under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) of the European Union (EU), it said on Monday.
The largest part of the financing, 49.6 million euro, will go towards the construction of a natural gas interconnector on the border with Bulgaria, European integration minister Jadranka Joksimovic said, as quoted in a statement by the government.
About 28 million euro of the funding will be used for the development of wastewater projects in Brus, Blace and Kraljevo, as well as for other environmental facilities, such as the waste separation in 19 municipalities in Serbia, Joksimovic said.
Earlier this month, Serbia opened Chapter 17 - Economic and Monetary Policy, and Chapter 18 - Statistics, in its EU accession talks.
The European Commission started negotiations with Serbia on the country's accession to the bloc in January 2014. Serbia has opened 16 chapters in the accessions process thus far, and has closed two - Science and Research, and Education and Culture.
($ = 0.88158 euro)