The Minister for European Integration, Tanja Miščević, during her visit to the National Museum in Leskovac, opened the “Info Day of the Serbia-North Macedonia Cross-Border Cooperation Program” and stated that this cooperation program, as an instrument that has the role of all-round assistance, is of exceptional importance for a large number of citizens.
Minister stated that at the annual conference in November, which was related to cross-border cooperation projects, significant data was highlighted that, apart from significant financial resources, more than 100,000 citizens benefited from some of these projects.
This is the way, the minister said, in which we most directly help citizens to fulfill their needs.
“Serbia, as a candidate for EU membership, is able to use various funds and, and the largest volume of funds, goes through the instrument for pre-accession assistance – IPA”, the Minister pointed out.
“Yesterday, the IPA program for the year 2023 was adopted at the Government session, i.e. 165 million euros to help the energy sector, and actually to help the particularly vulnerable, those who have problems paying their electricity bills, whether they are individuals or small and medium-sized enterprises.” , the minister stated.
From the IPA program, we also have cross-border cooperation programs – transnational programs, with which the EU helps us to help local communities, non-governmental organizations, the museum… to do those jobs that, the minister points out, are justified to be done in such a way that benefit the local community.