Council of Europe approves grant of EUR 9.2 million for Serbia for building apartments for refugees and displaced persons

The Management Board and the Assembly of Donors of the Regional Housing Program (RHP) have approved a grant of EUR 9.2 million for Serbia for permanent housing of refugees and displaced persons from the region, the Council of Europe reported.

The report says that the decision was reached at the joint session of the two authorities, held on December 1 in the premises of the Council of Europe Development Bank in Paris.

As the report adds, two grants were approved for Montenegro (EUR 0.9 million and EUR 1.4 million). Furthermore, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s request for an increase of budget and the number of housing units in two previously approved housing projects in the amount of EUR 2.5 million was also approved.

The projects approved will provide a total of 650 new housing units to the beneficiaries in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. The report says that around 1,000 housing units will have been delivered by the end of the year, whereas the number should be four times bigger in 2017.

The RHP is a joint initiative by Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia (partner countries). It aims to provide permanent housing to persons displaced during the war in the former Yugoslavia who are still living in hard conditions. Of the four partner countries, Serbia has the largest number of beneficiaries (45,000), followed by B&H (14,000), Croatia (8,529) and Montenegro (6,063).

The Regional Housing Program is supported by the international community, including the EU, which is represented by the European Commission, the United States of America, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the program is run by the Council of Europe Development Bank in Paris.