IP/01/214
Brussels, 15 February 2001
The European Commission (EC) approved yesterday the commitment of € 100 million to finance a support programme for Kosovo in 2001 which focuses on housing, water and solid waste management, agriculture, local government and civil society and health. The programme, which will be implemented by the European Agency for Reconstruction, is the result of close co-ordination with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and other international donors. The projects identified complement the on-going work of ECHO (Humanitarian Aid Office), other humanitarian agencies and NGO's, as well as reconstruction programmes already underway. The assistance package, which forms part of an overall support in 2001 to Kosovo of € 350 million, builds on past programmes but reinforces the society development, democratisation and institution building which are key accompanying measures to physical re-construction being provided to date.
The five main components the package covers are:
Housing (€38M)
This component comprises two main activities. The first is grant assistance for housing reconstruction, a continuation of the 2000 programme to repair/reconstruct some 3,150 3,200 houses. This assistance will continue to be targeted on the most vulnerable households with the most seriously damaged houses. The second activity will provide technical assistance for resolving residential property rights and claims. This will be done through the Housing and Property Directorate (HPD) and Housing and Property Claims Commission (HPCC). These two institutions have been mandated by UNMIK to provide administrative and extra-judicial resolution and regularisation of the Kosovo residential property market.
Water and Solid Waste Management (€20M)
This component assists the utilities responsible for these services with the rehabilitation of the infrastructure and the build-up of their institutional capacity. Support will be specifically directed to the rehabilitation and upgrading of the inadequate and substandard waste disposal infrastructure and the construction of some new landfills. For water, it will be assisting, equipping and building the capacity of the local waste utilities to improve waste collection and disposal services. Moreover, there will be a continuation of the 2000 water programme (rehabilitation of the water and wastewater infrastructure and institutional support to the water utilities)
Agriculture (€10)
The objective of the agriculture component is to help farmers to increase productivity and profitability and move towards exploiting their longer-term comparative advantage in key sub sectors and products. Previous agricultural assistance covered input supplies. This action is intended to focus on agri-business development: agri-business development unit (ABU) to provide advice and administer credit facilities; agro-processing credit facility for selected socially-owned and private enterprises and a primary production credit facility for credits in kind for small farmers.
Local government and Civil Society (€18M)
Kosovo is facing the challenge of establishing a democratic pluralist society while ensuring that civil institutions function efficiently. This component intends to support three pillars of democracy, the executive, the judiciary and the civil society/media by:
- Assisting, equipping and building the capacity of local government (municipal administrations) responsible for delivery of increased basic services to their constituencies;
- Contributing to a fair and accessible administration of justice;
- Strengthening civil society and an independent media, as key actors in the promotion of a human rights culture and the building of a democratic society open to the region and the rest of Europe.
Health (€14M)
The focus of support will go to the procurement of essential medical equipment for hospitals and on a strengthening of family medicine principally through an appropriate level of vocational training for doctors and nurses.
The procurement of equipment will be done through the involvement of local hospital management and technical staff in the early stages of the need identification process. This will ensure that equipment purchased is relevant and does not go beyond the maintenance abilities of the user staff. The support to family medicine and training to doctors and nurses will be done via the creation of a Human Resource sub-department in the Department for Health and Social Services (DHSW)