In his keynote speech given at the Regional Cross-Border Cooperation Forum, the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport said that the six countries have established cooperation through nine programmes focused on socio-economic development.
“As the Head of EU Delegation, I am particularly interested in what has been done in Serbia and the effort invested by the Serbian Government in the implementation of cross-border cooperation programmes is truly remarkable,” Ambassador Davenport said.
He said that in the period from 2007-2013 the EU had allocated more that EUR100 million for the ongoing cross-border cooperation programmes.
“When travelling across Serbia, the benefits of cross-border cooperation programmes brought to schools, museums theatres, children playgrounds, enterprises etc. become obvious,” Davenport said.
“The European institutions are not abstract notions. They are engaged in the implementation of concrete projects which have the power to improve the status of individual people and strengthen the capacity of local self-governments,” the Minister without portfolio in charge of European integration Jadranka Joksimovic said and added that “people living in border regions should contribute to strengthening cooperation.”