Deputy Director and Coordinator for EU Funds of the Serbian Office for European Integration Ognjen Miric stated Wednesday that once it gets the EU candidate status, Serbia can count on around EUR 200 million from the funds, adding that an increase may be expected as part of the next EU budget.

Miric explained that the EU budget has already been distributed, so the candidate status can not bring Serbia more than EUR 200 million.

He said for Tanjug that the EU budget will be in effect by 2013, and that a new one will be drafted for the period from 2014 to 2020, adding that it is still early to speak about the amounts that each country will get.

“The very fact that Serbia will achieve the EU candidate status implies that it will get more funds this and the next year. This year, the EU member states are discussing a new budget, which will be larger than the previous one by EUR 2.6 billion, and that is good both for Serbia and all other western Balkan states,” Miric said.

Miric said that the EU has envisaged nearly EUR 2.6 billion more for the western Balkan countries, and proposed EUR 14.1 billion for the new financial period, bearing in mind that Croatia as the future EU member will not use these funds.

“In the manner, the western Balkan countries and Turkey will get more funds,” Miric noted.