SARAJEVO (Reuters) – The EU has approved 303 million euros ($330.3 million) worth of grants for Bosnian infrastructure projects, the bloc said on Tuesday, with all grants focused on the country’s autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation rather than its Serb region.
The grants, part of the European Union’s 2.1 billion euro investment package for the western Balkans, will assist projects including the construction of two sections of a north-to-south pan-European highway connecting Budapest with the Croatian port of Ploce.
Other projects to be assisted are the improvement of water supply in the capital Sarajevo and the rehabilitation of a southern hydro-power plant’s pump storage, the bloc said.
All four projects are based in the Bosniak-Croat Federation rather than the country’s Serb-dominated Serb Republic.
The 27-member bloc has repeatedly warned the Serb Republic’s pro-Russian nationalist President Milorad Dodik to halt secessionist rhetoric and moves undermining the Bosnian state, but has fallen short of imposing sanctions against him.
Nobody from the EU delegation in Bosnia was immediately available to comment on why no project from the Bosnian Serb region had been approved.
The funds announced on Tuesday represent more than a half of the total 528 million euros approved for the region in grants from the EU pre-accession assistance instrument, along with additional contributions from EU member states and Norway, and loans from international financing institutions.
($1 = 0.9173 euros)
(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by David Holmes)
