“Serbia has about 850 million at their disposal from the EU pre-accession funds (IPA) and projects have already been prepared”, said Adriano Martins, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Union in Serbia at the conference A Step Closer to European Integration, organized by the Italian cooperation for development in Serbia.

Martins said that EUR 430 million of this amount is related to current support and projects and that the remaining EUR 420 million will mainly be accessible through the tender process and will be available to use over the next two years.

According to Martins, the European Union funds Serbia with an annual amount of EUR 200 million, which classifies Serbia among the countries with the highest individual EU support.

Bojan Markovic, Vice Governor of National Bank of Serbia stated that the NBS has used these funds and that he expects the NBS to receive confirmation of the European Commission within the next few weeks to continue using pre-accession funds.

The Italian Ambassador to Serbia, Armando Varrichio, said that in 2010. He expects consolidation of the results achieved in 2009. He said that Italy has significantly supported the European integration of Serbia, and will continue to support this path.

“Italian companies have an interest in investing in Serbia and the greatest potential exists in agriculture, food, infrastructure, the energy sector, and machine industries," said Varrichio. In addition, he said that Serbia has perspective in the Automobile Industry and Environmental Protection, which also requires significant investment.

Gordana Lazarevic, Assistant Minister of Finance explained that on June 30, 2010, projects intended to be funded from the funds for 2010 should be submitted to the European Commission for approval.

Milica Delević, director of European Integration Office, noted that Serbia made big steps towards the European Union last year. She said that research shows that the percentage of citizens who support the reforms as a condition for entry into the Union is greater than the amount against Serbia’s entry into the European Union, and 72 percent of citizens believe that reforms are necessary, while 62 percent are for entry into the Union.