EU Delegation in BiH denies Lagumdžija's claims

The EU Delegation and the Office of the EU Special Representative in BiH reacted to today's statement by the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the meeting on foreign policy issues held with ambassadors of the European Union member states, including Ambassador Peter Sorensen, reports the BiH news agency Patria.

Namely, as stated in the reaction, the MFA BiH statement contains a sentence that allegedly conveys a statement by the Head of the EU Delegation and EU Special Representative Sorensen.

- Ambassador Sorensen said on this occasion that not a single convertible mark has been paid into the accounts of BiH institutions, nor have there been any abuses or patching of budget holes with donor funds - stated the MFA BiH.

The European Union Delegation and the Office of the EU Special Representative state that this inaccurately represents the conversation and that Ambassador Sorensen did not make the statement attributed to him.

During the discussion on donor funds for flood recovery, which was initiated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH, Ambassador Sorensen, in fact, said that he understood that the funds promised by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had been transferred to BiH and that other bilateral donors were ready to transfer funds once the BiH authorities defined the relevant criteria for their allocation.

The title of the statement received from the MFA BiH is - Dr. Lagumdžija with ambassadors of the EU, the United Kingdom, and France: Not a single convertible mark from the Donor Conference has been paid into the accounts of BiH institutions, nor have "budget holes" been patched with them - which was the reason for the reaction from the EU Delegation.

As announced by the EU Delegation, despite the fact that the European Commission, together with France and Slovenia organized the Donor Conference, the BiH authorities are clearly responsible for the coordination of donor funds, reports Patria.