Corruption is one of the biggest issues Serbia faces and in 2014 the country has made progress in fighting it, but many challenges remain, said Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport at the ceremony marking the International Anti-Corruption Day.

Most of EU donations to Serbia have come from the instrument for pre-accession or IPA that has been implemened in the period 2007-2013, while IPA II regulation sets a new framework for providing pre-accession assistance for the next period 2014-2020 and is aimed at helping countries meet the political and the economic accession criteria, the head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport told a conference on opportunities and challenges that IPA II would provide in the Serbia’s accession talks with the EU.

EU have decided to reward each of the volunteers who have taken part in volunteer camps and helped the flood-affected citizens, through Young People Rule programme, Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport announced. Thanks to volunteers, Serbia has shown what matters the most, said Davenport at the 2014 Best Youth Volunteer Action award ceremony.

Within the pan-European project Europeana, action “Mobilisation of Memory” is organised in three cities – Belgrade, Novi Sad, Cacak – in December, aimed at collecting archive documents on World War I. As early as 5 and 6 December, Belgraders are invited to share their family memories of the Great War.

Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport visited Vranje to see the results of the EU-funded projects and reaffirmed European support to new developmental activities of the town.

Head of the European Delegation to the Republic of Serbia Michael Davenport, Head of the Coordinating Body for Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja Zoran Stankovic, and the President of the Municipality of Bujanovac Nagip Arifi, announced the start of the construction of Bujanovac Department of the Faculty of Economics in Subotica. The EU will provide some 800.000 for the project.

Majority of citizens supports Serbia’s membership in the European Union, in general, attitude towards the EU is a more positive one, whereas citizens’ awareness regarding the EU assistance to Serbia is on the rise, primarily because of better recognition of the assistance provided for May flood relief, showed the latest public opinion poll “Serbian citizens’ attitudes towards Serbia’s EU integration”.

EU Delegation will continue to support media in the area of investigative journalism and strengthening of the media legal framework, the purposes for which it has already allocated 2.5 million euros for the next two years, EU Ambassador to Serbia Michael Davenport told a debate on media held in Arandjelovac.