Brussels, 29/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - Friday morning, mid-way through the donors conference for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the organisers - the European Commission and the World Bank - seemed confident of gathering, by the end of the day, the USD 1.25 billion needed to rebuild the country and for the functioning of its administration in 2001.
Before the press, the representatives from the World Bank and the Commission explained that the success of the conference owed a great deal to the reforms begun by the Yugoslav government since last October. Johannes Linn, World Bank Vice-President for Europe and Central Asia, qualified the level of preparation by the Yugoslav authorities at the conference as masterful and the reforms undertaken by Belgrade as "exceptional". He announced that the World Bank would provide an aid of USD 150 million for 2001 and of USD 430 million for 2002 to which must be added USD 30 million in donations. As for the United States, it undertook to provide an aid of USD 181 million for 2001. For its part, the EU will provide an aid of EUR 230 million for the financing of the projects contained within the ERTP (Economic Recovery and Transition programme: see EUROPE of 29 June, p.15), of which 200 million for Serbia, 20 for Montenegro and 10 for the federal programmes (customs, border management…). This aid will be implementation in Belgrade and Podgorica by the European Agency for Reconstruction. Other than the funds for the reconstruction, the EU undertook to provide a macro-financial aid of EUR 300 million for 2001 and 2002 and the Commission proposed to the Council that the Union grant a budgetary guarantee of EUR 350 million for the loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to the FRY. Visibly pleased, Miroljub Labus, Deputy Prime Minister for the FRY, indicated that the conference had a symbolic value, since it marks the return of his country within the sphere of the international community. He also felt that the transfer of Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague constitutes a signal that "Yugoslavia is prepared to respect its international obligations".