The EU Delegation in Bosnia said on Wednesday that it has started contracting various agriculture, energy efficiency and justice sector projects under a €71 million financial package after state authorities in December last year signed the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) 2018 Programme.

The country is currently also using funds from the IPA 2013 to IPA 2017 “with an overall commitment exceeding €350 million,” the EU Delegation said in a press release.

It said that the EU contracted nearly €81 million and paid out over €64 million in 2019, which is “significantly above the targets set in the beginning of the year” and that the EU “expects that the financial performance of BiH (Bosnia and Herzegovina) will further increase in 2020, both for the contracting of the new actions as well as payments for the ongoing projects,”

As for IPA 2019 and 2020, EU Member States approved annual programmes worth a total of about €170 million which will be used for public administration reform, public finance management, justice and transitional justice, home affairs, support to parliaments in the EU accession process, energy, transport, environment, trade and education, employment and social policies, it said.“

This allows for the start of the preparation of BiH for the next Financial Perspective 2021 – 2027,” it added.

Bosnia is, according to the press release, “the biggest beneficiary of the Regional IPA for transport in the Western Balkans” with some €215 million of grant co-financing being used for accelerating the construction of motorway on Bosnia’s part of the pan-European Corridor Vc.

IPA assistance aims to support and promote reforms which are required for Bosnia’s EU accession process as outlined in a European Commission Opinion on the country’s membership application in May last year, the release said.