EU PROGRES

By posing for a photograph with the students of the primary school Radoje Domanović in the village of Kumarevo at Leskovac, Head of the European Union Delegation to the Republic of Serbia Ambassador Vincent Degert completed his two-day visit to South Serbia, during which he announced that two million Euros would be invested in small infrastructural projects in South and South West Serbia via the European Partnership with Municipalities Programme PROGRES. The Ambassador earlier visited a creative workshop within the Rome Education Centre, a project aimed at integrating Roma children in the education system and met with Leskovac Mayor Slobodan Kocić.

“It was a pleasure to visit Leskovac again and hear about Mayor Kocić’s plans and vision. There is a lot of ambition and potential for development in Leskovac. The new infrastructural projects – such as the construction of the waste water treatment facility – will definitely bring the city new investments,” Ambassador Degert said. “When I was in Prokuplje yesterday, I presented contracts for seven infrastructural projects in the Toplica District municipalities, for which we and our partners in the Swiss and Serbian Governments will earmark 570,000 Euros. I would also like to thank the PROGRES Steering Committee for approving funding for another 14 infrastructural projects worth 1.3 million Euros, which will be implemented in South and South West Serbia.  One of them is the school Radoje Domanović, worth 185,000 Euros. We will earmark 100,000 for this project and the rest will be provided by the City of Leskovac,” Ambassador Degert added.

The Ambassador also recalled the need to invest efforts in helping Roma children finish school. “Social inclusion is the first step in addressing the problem of poverty. We want to create opportunities for all children here to have a good future,” Degert said.

The European Union is supporting the European Partnership with Municipalities Programme PROGRES with 14.1 million Euros; the Government of Switzerland is supporting it with 2.5 million Euros, while the contribution of the Government of the Republic of Serbia stands at 1.5 million Euros. PROGRES is implemented in 25 municipalities in South and South West Serbia and is geared at supporting their social and economic development.