The European Commission hosted a Donors' Conference here on Wednesday to mobilise further support to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in the aftermath of the recent floods.
The one-day conference co-organised with France and Slovenia was attended by international donor countries, financial institutions, and main relevant civil society organisations. The aim of the conference was to collect pledges from donors for the two Balkan countries' recovery from the recent floods, noted a statement by the EU's executive body.
Speaking at the conference, Stefan Fule, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, said: "We have to help Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina to rebuild the damage cost by the floods." "There are immediate needs to rehouse those whose house was swept away and also to reconnect essential infrastructure to rebuild the communities," he noted.
On her part, Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid, said: "Building this sense of solidarity is absolutely paramount in the days and years ahead because climate change would make these floods not a rare event unfortunately but more frequent." "In central Europe in 30 years we have lived through 200 years floods," she affirmed.
Laurent Fabius, French Foreign Affairs Minister said: "The sums collected will be used in full transparency in order to help rebuild housing, roads and other infrastructure projects." "What we need to do is mobilise funding from all sources including private sources to encourage job creation and help with the economic recovery of Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina," he pointed out.
Bakir Izetbekovic, Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said: "The people of Bosnia-Herzegovina are resilient. We have overcome many disasters in our history and I am sure that we will overcome this one as well." "We will rebuild together everything this disaster destroyed. I hope we can count on your assistance to rebuild better together," he noted.
Tomislav Nikolic, President of Serbia, said: "I would never want this to happen to you but bear in mind that Serbia knows how to be grateful in return for friendship." "This is the time for solidarity and not for request and let me remind you that solidarity was one of the main principles of the EU," he added.