Brussels, 11/04/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission and Member States have pledged to finance almost half the regional projects presented in the framework of the Donor Conference for South East Europe. A week after the Conference, following collection and verification of the pledges, the European Commission and World Bank have presented a distribution of pledges by donors (some of which still need approval by national parliaments).
Of a total of 2.4 billion euro, EU Member States as a whole have pledged 552.5 million euro - Italy, with 148.58 million is the largest donor. The Commission has, under the Community budget, pledged 531.55 million euro, to be committed in the course of this year through credits available under budget headings devoted to the different beneficiary countries. The participation of the European Investment Bank "cannot a priori be quantified", said its spokesperson: it has to be decided on a project by project basis, depending on "project viability", which notably depends on the level of participation of other donors. In addition, the EIB is waiting to have a legal basis and a guarantee for these operations, especially in Kosovo and Montenegro. Its participation should however be in the region of 30% of infrastructure projects, which it has itself selected. Among the other donors, the United States has pledged 80.56 million euro, and Canada 50.83 million. Regional solidarity has also played a part, as Hungary (1.55 million), Slovenia (5.51) and the Czech Republic (24.52 million) are also to participate in funding projects.
The pledges are spread over four major categories¸ corresponding to the "working tables" of the Stability Pact. A large part of these pledges relate to precise projects - which was the goal of the Conference. However, as 600 million euro were pledged in addition to the expected 1.8 billion for precise projects intended to be launched within 12 months, the institutions of the Stability Pact have been instructed to select new projects, in cooperation with the donors. They must also persuade the donors that were too numerous in coming forward to fund a single project to carry their pledges over to other projects.
The global distribution by objective is as follows:
i) "table 1 - democratisation and human rights": 460 million euro: : human rights, media, public administration, schools..;
ii) "table 2 - economic reconstruction, development and cooperation"; 1.81 billion euro: most goes to infrastructure projects presented by the EIB, 70% of which in road construction, 3% for rail and 3% for electricity - the EIB has, however, stipulated that this proposal is for the 35 "quick-start" projects (1.1 billion euro), and stems notably from the fact that that it is easier to prepare road projects than for rail and electricity, for which administrative complications would be much harder to overcome ("the institutional aspect is predominant"); the EIB has earmarked some fifty other projects, being prepared, for which the share for rail and electricity would go, respectively, to 17 and 26%, whereas for roads it would be 36%;
iii) "table 3 - security issues"; 78.62 million euro: training, mine-clearance, assistance in the reform of the legal systems…
iv) horizontal issues; 5.24 million euro: combating corruption, refugee return);
v) non-distributed; 47.92 million euro.
For the details of the projects, see the Stability Pact site (http: //http://www.stabilitypact.org ) and the Donor Conference (http: //http://www.seerecon.org ).
The World Bank, the Commission, the Stability Pact, the EIB and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development are to hold several meetings to ensure the follow-up of the Donor Conference. These meetings will serve to decide which agency or donor country will be responsible for undertaking each project. They will also have as aim to set out the participation of international financial institutions. At the end of the Donor Conference, representatives of the European Commission, World Bank and the Stability Pact attempted to stress the concrete and immediate nature of the projects being financed. Thus, the first project began the very day after the Conference, with the launch of the construction of the border post of Blace, between Kosovo and Fyrom (Macedonia).
"We are determined to fight against the slow nature of procedures, bureaucracy and late payments", said Bodo Hombach, coordinator for the Stability Pact, who will be responsible for monitoring the follow-up to the Conference. Mr. Hombach, the EU's High Representative for Cfsp, Javier Solana, and the Commissioner for external relations, Chris Patten should met every three weeks to "examine the state of progress of projects, look at problems and see how to resolve them".