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Balkan Aid Project to Cost $1.5bn - UN Finance - Global Policy Forum Balkan Aid Project to Cost $1.5bn
BBC News
March 18, 2000
The official coordinating an international plan for reconstructing the Balkans has said he wants donor countries to agree urgent aid worth $1.5bn dollars.
The official, Bodo Hombach, was speaking after prime ministers from countries bordering Yugoslavia met senior Nato and European Union officials in Budapest ahead of a donor conference at the end of the month. Mr Hombach said the aid package was intended for infrastructure projects and should be spent within 12 months.
The projects, intended to increase stability in the Balkans, include reconstruction of bridges in Novi Sad and the building of a new bridge across the Danube between Romania and Bulgaria.
EU security chief Javier Solana said it supported completely the overall aims of the programme. "The Stability Pact is going to continue without any major difficulty. The situation we have to look at with care, but things are going to move," he said. The Spanish diplomat, formerly Nato secretary-general, also expressed confidence in Mr Hombach, against whom German prosecutors announced an embezzlement probe last week.
Mr Solana is due to present his review of EU foreign policy in the Balkans to a meeting of the 15 foreign ministers on Monday in Brussels, and to heads of state at the Lisbon summit at the end of the week.
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