The European Investment Bank (EIB) will continue to invest in the social and economic development of North Macedonia, while supporting the faster economic recovery of the country’s economy and its backbone – small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the main conclusion from the meeting that EIB President Werner Hoyer and Vice-President Lilyana Pavlova had with North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. The EIB presented plans to boost support from Team Europe, expand cooperation, step up its activities in North Macedonia and support the European Commission’s rollout of its Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans.
The EU bank is ready to expand its successful cooperation with the Government of North Macedonia, contribute further to the competitiveness of the country’s economy, and support significant infrastructure projects and the transition towards a greener and more sustainable economic model. To date, the EIB has invested close to €970 million in 29 projects in North Macedonia, supporting key sectors of the economy – infrastructure, energy, transport and SMEs.
As part of the overall EU efforts under Team Europe to mitigate the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EIB mobilised over €1 billion for the economies of the Western Balkans in 2020 alone. These funds are part of the EIB’s €1.7 billion contribution to the Team Europe package of €3.3 billion announced by the European Commission at the Zagreb EU Western Balkans Summit in May 2020.
Launched in mid-March 2021, the South East Europe Youth Newsroom, aims to serve as a bridge between young journalists and youth to foster trust in media. The newsroom will act as a network, providing participants with opportunities to work in a team and report on activities supported by UNESCO and the EU on freedom of expression.
Created under the UNESCO EU-funded project “Building Trust in Media in South East Europe and Turkey – Phase 2,” the SEE Youth Newsroom bring together 31 young journalists aged between 22 and 30 years old from across the whole region. The newsroom will also serve as a platform to highlight their work and stories, and offer training on diverse topics from fact-checking to professional standards for journalists.
“Youth’s perspective is often missing in the journalistic reporting of the region. Gathering young and aspiring journalists and equipping them with additional tools to express themselves professionally is a unique opportunity for bridging this gap,” said Alma Fejzić from the Centre for Development of Youth Activism (CROA), UNESCO’s partner in Sarajevo in charge of establishing the SEE Youth Newsroom.
The network is established by the Centre for Development of Youth Activism to allow the young journalists to work together, report on issues related to freedom of expression, and improve their journalism skills. The idea is to involve this network to cover global or regional conferences such as the World Press Freedom Day or the Global MIL Week to produce quality multi-media coverage of these events and raise awareness on these issues among youth in the region.
The construction of the Corridor Vc motorway, a priority infrastructure project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is progressing further with new financing from the European Union. A new €20.7 million grant provided by the EU will support the completion of the construction works on two sections: Buna-Pocitelj and tunnel Zenica-Donja Gracanica.
In addition to building modern transport infrastructure, the project also contributes to improving road safety in the country by achieving three-star safety standard by the International Road Assessment Program – one of the first projects in the region to receive it. The project also enhances the sustainability of motorway construction and management, as well as procurement procedures in the public motorway company.
The grant funds have been secured through the EU-supported Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF), which aims to improve the region’s connectivity by building new transport links and upgrading outdated transport and environmental infrastructure.
The development of Corridor Vc is a strategic priority for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The 325 km motorway will cross the country from the border with Croatia near port of Ploce in the south to the border with Croatia in the north, contributing towards faster economic and social development. It is currently the biggest construction project in the country. It is estimated to cost approximately €3.7 billion.
The European Commission has allocated almost €12 million to Serbia in additional financial support to help in the fight against Covid-19. These funds will be used for emergency support to the population, measures for prevention, monitoring and control of the spread of the disease, and for medical and personal protective equipment. The funds will also serve to reimburse expenses incurred previously by Serbia in the fight against the pandemic.
The donation comes from the European Solidarity Fund (EUSF). It is part of a larger package of €530 million to cover 17 EU member states and three EU candidate countries. The financial contribution proposed by the Commission has now to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council. The financial aid will then be disbursed to the applicant countries.
The EU Solidarity Fund is available to EU member states, but also to EU candidate countries, such as Serbia. It can be activated in cases of major natural disasters or public health emergencies that cause great direct damage or require the containment of significant public financial expenditures. Serbia has benefited from the EU Solidarity Fund in the past, after the 2014 floods.
The EU is by far the largest investor, the largest trading partner and the largest donor to Serbia. With more than €3 billion in non-refundable aid to Serbia in the past two decades, the EU supports Serbia to become a more prosperous, sustainable, fairer, safer, democratic society, and thus ready to join the Union.
On 11 March, the European Commission put forward a package of almost €530 million in additional financial support under the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF). It will contribute to efforts deployed by 17 EU Member States, and three accession countries (Albania, Montenegro and Serbia) to safeguard public health in fighting the pandemic.
This funding will support part of their public expenditure on medical and personal protective equipment, emergency support to the population, and prevention, monitoring and control measures.
EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira said: “The EU Solidarity Fund is a concrete demonstration of European solidarity in action. Since its creation, it has delivered effective assistance and relief to millions of people during difficult times. Last year, we extended its scope to cover major health emergencies. Now we are proposing to mobilise much needed coronavirus-related financial assistance. The EUSF is once again accomplishing its core mission.”
Next steps
The financial contribution proposed by the Commission has now to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council. The financial aid will then be disbursed to the applicant countries.
On 10 March, the Mother Teresa University Hospital in Tirana received a CT (computed tomography) scanner, as part of the EU’s €4.2 million emergency support programme, EU4Health. The CT scanner will be crucial in both the prevention and the fight against COVID 19, serving to both investigate conditions of COVID-19 hospitalised patients and supporting laboratory diagnostics and testing.
EU Ambassador to Albania, Luigi Soreca, and Albanian Minister of Health and Social Protection, Ogerta Manastirliu, were present at the delivery of this advanced equipment to the hospital’s radiology department. During his address, Ambassador Soreca expressed his appreciation to all the doctors and nurses of the four COVID-19 structures in Tirana, Durres, Shkodra and Elbasan, as well as to the epidemiologists, biologists and researchers of the Institute of Public Health for their hard work in this fight against the pandemic outbreak:
“I am proud that the EU can be at your side. These are very difficult times in all countries of the world, and certainly in the EU. Even in these difficult times, the EU and its Member States have kept their commitment and support to Albania, and this delivery is the concrete example of this strong bond. While this one contract ends today, the EU continues to be at the side of Albania with other crucial interventions against the pandemic, including on vaccines.”
Since its launch in April 2020, the €4.2 million EU4Health programme, implemented by the United Nations Office for Projects and Services (UNOPS), has ensured the procurement of specialised medical equipment and devices for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 for Albanian hospitals.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has extended a €10 million mortgage credit line toIntesa Sanpaolo Banka d.d. Bosnia and Herzegovinafor further lending to private borrowers for housing purposes. The new credit line is aimed to address the growing demand for mortgages in the BiH and is an extension of a €15 million mortgage line approved in July 2019.
With this support from the EBRD, customers of the bank will be able to get more favourable loans to improve housing conditions, achieve better energy efficiency, and purchase a property.
Since 1996, the EBRD has invested more than €2.7 billion in 191 projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The tender for the construction of the new gas supply pipeline connecting the city of Niš with the Bulgarian capital Sofia Construction has been published. The gas pipeline’s projected capacity will allow for the transfer of 1.8 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually. The construction of the gas pipeline on the Serbian side will be funded with the support of the European Union with over € 49 million. In addition, the project will be financed through a loan of the European Investment Bank (EIB), the bank of the EU, with € 25 million.
This project will significantly increase the amount of gas supply to households, thus considerably contributing to Serbia’s energy security and cleaner environment.
The photo exhibition “Natura 2000 in frame” with pictures of protected species in Serbia is open on the Sava Promenade at the Kalemegdan Fortress in Belgrade. Art lovers who may visit the exhibition will have an opportunity to enjoy three winning and 31 semifinalist photos that competed in the “Natura 2000 in the Frame” competition.
The purpose of the exhibition aims to promote biodiversity and beautiful landscapes in Serbia and raise public awareness of the importance of nature conservation, diversity of flora and fauna.
Photo contest ”Natura 2000 in the frame” is organised by the EU-funded “EU for Natura 2000 in Serbia” project. Out of more than 1,500 received photographs, 34 were selected and will be displayed at anoutdoor photo exhibition at Kalemegdan Fortress during March and April 2021.
Meet Donika, a visual artist from Tirana who is preserving the memory of an old house and its defiant owner who refused to give in to the relentless tide of urban development.
Myslym Shyri is one of the busiest streets in Tirana, the capital of Albania. For decades, it was a quiet, residential neighbourhood with no shops or coffee bars. This changed after the fall of communism in the 1990s, when almost all houses and apartments turned their ground floors into commercial ventures. All except one.
This is an apartment building like many others, but on this ground floor, no shop or café has taken over. Many people pass by every day, and one of the commuters who passed the building regularly was Donika Çina, a visual artist living in Tirana. She was inspired to incorporate the apartment into her performance art.
“There were and are so many rumours about Bia: her life, her intentions and her mental state. Her decision to never sell or rent her home for commercial purposes seems significant.”
The memory lives on
Donika was particularly interested by an old lady, the owner, who regularly cleaned and painted the exterior of her ground floor flat. The lady’s name was Bia. “There were and are so many rumours about Bia: her life, her intentions and her mental state. Her decision to never sell or rent her home for commercial purposes, as many others have done on Myslym Shyri Street, seemed significant,” Donika says.
In 2017, when Donika started work on her performance, she found out that Bia had passed away. The house was still there, but she was not sure for how long it would remain. “I needed to take action,” she says, “to keep the memory alive, before the house was turned into another coffee shop.”
As part of her performance, Donika repeated Bia’s daily cleaning rituals in front of the house. The performance was recorded by three security cameras and live-streamed on a monitor at the Zeta gallery exhibition space in Tirana.
Her performance aimed to reflect on questions related to Bia’s daily ritual of cleaning in front of the house: was Bia fighting the city’s perceived neglect as an act of protest? Did she consider the space in front of her house to be an extension of her private space? “We cannot ask her these questions. But we can continue questioning our involvement in public space; the meaning of our conscious actions; the impact on us of our walls, concrete and trees all being whitewashed,” says Donika.
“The performance will preserve the cultural memory of the city and Bia’s gesture as a fragile but significant individual protest.”
About the project
These residencies are conceived within the long-term project, Beyond Matter, which is an international, collaborative, practice-based research project that takes cultural heritage and culture to the verge of virtual reality. One of the goals of the project is to develop novel solutions for the accessible digital documentation and networked presentation of exhibitions that currently exist, or previously existed, in physical space – including artworks, artifacts, and educational materials. The project is supported through the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.
Standing her ground
The exterior of Bia’s house is still intact, even now, five years after she passed away. However, it needs some additional work in order to look as it did when Bia was alive. Recently, Donika took the initiative to build on her artistic project, by working on the exterior of the flat, and video recording the exterior in 3D, before the flat is turned into a business, like other ground floor flats in the neighbourhood.
For the follow-up work on her project, Donika applied for support from an EU-funded artist residency in Tirana. “The performance will preserve the cultural memory of the city and Bia’s gesture as a fragile but significant individual protest,” says Donika.
The call for residency was launched by Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art, Tallinn Art Hall and the ZKM I Centre for Art and Media, inviting European art practitioners or theoreticians to apply for one of the three production residencies taking place in Karlsruhe, Tallinn, and Tirana.
