SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), April 22 (SeeNews) – Sweden will provide 100 million euro ($107 million) for Bosnia and Herzegovina for the period until 2020 for enhanced economic integration with the European Union and the development of the country's market economy, the Bosnian foreign ministry said, quoting a Swedish government official.
The funds will be allocated under Sweden’s 400 million euro strategy for reform cooperation with the Western Balkan for the period 2014-2020, the ministry said on Tuesday, quoting Mikaela Kumlin Granit, head of the EU department at the Swedish ministry of foreign affairs.
The plan is part of a major strategy for Sweden's cooperation with the Eastern Europe, Western Balkan and Turkey, under which Sweden will allocate a total of over 8 billion Swedish crowns ($898 million/861 million euro) for the period to 2020, data of the strategy document posted on the Swedish foreign ministry’s website indicated.
Most of the funds will be provided by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, SIDA.
Bosnia's Council of Ministers said recently that the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the European Union and Bosnia and Herzegovina will enter into force on June 1.
In February Bosnia’s parliament adopted a political and economic reform plan, according to which government institutions will implement all reforms needed to establish institutional functionality and efficiency at all levels of authority which will enable the country to prepare for its future EU membership as a sovereign state.
($=0.9362 euro)