After last spring’s record rainfall in Southeast Europe, Serbia watched historic floods submerge towns and overrun the countryside. Rural villages and farms took the brunt of the impact, as high water and landslides drowned livestock, destroyed crop seed and animal feed supplies, and washed away newly sown fields along with the hard work of the spring planting season.
Pilot project “EU Support for Roma Employment” should act as basis in overcoming the challenges in social inclusion of Roma and improvement of their living conditions in Serbian capital, said Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport announcing the launch of the project at City Centre for Social Entrepreneurship.
The rehabilitation of three infiltration lakes which provide water supply to 15,000 inhabitants of Trstenik is completed. This included removal of the mud, regulation of the banks and placement of new layers of filtration sand. This intervention was funded by the EU with some 192,400 Euros. As the part of the standard procedure, the Public Utility Company “Water Supply” now has to obtain three positive findings of the consecutive chemical analysis of the water samples before including lakes back to the system.
Keys to six new houses in Loznica, whose construction was funded by the EU, have been handed to their future residents, whereas over 150 small farms from this city received another tranche of assistance within EU Assistance for Flood Relief Programme. Under the Programme, Loznica has received 790.000 euros, which is also the most substantial post-flood assistance this city has received.
Within “Women in Focus” project, almost entirely funded by the EU, last weekend saw the training on the topic “Gender budgeting at local level” in Sokobanja. The training was participated in by representatives of local administration from the Municipality of Aleksinac, civil organisations, institutions and members of the Commission for gender equality.
Improving student mobility raises the level of education, but Serbian universities are still facing the challenges in this area, said participants of the session “Experience and perspectives in organising credit mobility”.
The provision of grants to more than 250 micro and small enterprises in municipalities hardest affected by the floods is underway. The delivery of equipment and raw material for restoring of the income generation activities is being conducted at the moment. Within this lot, greenhouses will be delivered to the selected agriculture entrepreneurs, while equipment and raw material will be provided to the affected businesses.Panic family in Valjevo received new equipment for its restaurant.
At the ceremony within the EU project “Support to improved integration of refugees, IDPs and returnees in the Municipality of Bojnik” three families have received keys to prefabricated houses. The project, aimed at improving living conditions of refugees, IDPs and returnees in the Municipality of Bojnik, received financial support from the EU Delegation to Serbia.
European Parliament rapporteur for Serbia David McAllister and European Union Ambassador to Serbia Michael Davenport attended the opening of kindergarten “Decja radost”, whose reconstruction following the May 2014 floods was financed by the European Union with approximately EUR240.000.
Foundation Tempus – Erasmus+ Serbia, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development and EU Info Centre in Belgrade, organises a session titled “Experience and perspectives in organising credit mobility” on Thursday, 19 February 2015, at 12:00 in Dom omladine Beograda, 1 Decanska Street (Americana Hall).
