Brussels postpones 125 million euro preferential loan for BiH

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The European Union will postpone the disbursement of the second tranche of financial aid for BiH amounting to 125 million euros because the authorities in BiH have not fulfilled the obligations they accepted when the agreement on the disbursement of aid due to the coronavirus, worth 250 million euros, was signed.

As a reminder, the agreement was signed in December 2020, and it was expected that the second tranche, after the approval of the first tranche in January last year, would be disbursed within a year.

In fact, BiH only received the first tranche in October last year, because the institutions in BiH ratified the agreement with the EU only in July.

This is a loan under extremely favorable terms, and the condition in the signed agreement is that the second tranche is disbursed no earlier than three months after the disbursement of the first tranche, as it was considered that this is a period in which the authorities have enough time to show that they are serious about the obligations they undertook when signing the loan.

"The implementation of these measures and policies will require close cooperation of all levels of government. The EU will assess compliance with the conditions for macro-financial assistance in the coming months," they emphasized for "Nezavisne novine".

From this answer that it is about "coming months" until the disbursement of the second tranche, it is clear that the money will not be disbursed perhaps even by the end of the year, especially considering that due to the sluggishness of BiH institutions, half a year passed from the approval to the disbursement of the first tranche.

In Brussels, they say that the EU approved the disbursement after the BiH authorities officially requested assistance in April 2020, given that the measures against the spread of the coronavirus have led to significant problems for the economy.

This package for BiH was allocated only to the entities and Brčko District, while consent was not given for the state level. RS received 37.5 percent of the 125 million euros, FBiH received 61.5 percent, while Brčko received one percent. The reason for this decision, as explained, is that the burden of the economic crisis fell on the entities, and that they should be helped in economic recovery.