Brussels, 25/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 24 April, European Commissioner for Enlargement and the Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle announced that the European Union “has pledged to give some €230 million over the next five years” to a regional housing programme in the Western Balkans. This programme will affect around 74,000 people still displaced and seeking refuge since the conflicts in the region in the 1990s.
At the international conference of the donors on sustainable solutions for refugees and displaced persons, which was held in Sarajevo, the international community pledged to provide around €31 million, “with some indications that a similar amount will be available over the remaining period of the programme”, the commissioner said. He stressed that the Commission “would certainly keep abreast of the situation”, because “international support is vital throughout the implementation period”. The four countries directly concerned, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, will contribute €83 million to the programme.
The Bosnian minister for refugees, Damir Ljubic, welcomed the pledges of international aid, describing it as “a very important sum to start to put our programme into place in the autumn”.
The housing construction programme, which has been valued at €105 million, will build some 27,000 homes in these four countries. More than 200,000 people are still living as refugees after the wars in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. (CG/transl.fl)