EU Funding in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The EU is the biggest donor to Bosnia and Herzegovina with more than 3.2 billion EUR provided from 1991 to 2013 in fields ranging from post-conflict reconstruction to rule of law, public administration reform, social and economic development, demining and ammunition destruction, environment, agriculture, civil society, cross-border cooperation, and others. The EU's assistance continues today.
The aim of this EU financial and technical assistance, first through programmes such as PHARE and OBNOVA and now through IPA and EIDHR, is to help Bosnia and Herzegovina to implement reforms in these key areas, crucial for the country's European integration process and equally for the overall benefit of BiH citizens and their quality of life.
The assistance is implemented through numerous projects, from large infrastructure projects to small grants, through processes of programming and contracting and grant award.
There are currently over 200 contracts under implementation covering a wide range of sectors.
This database provides a general overview of most of the EU assistance provided through the IPA instrument currently ongoing throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. Current EU assistance programmes, are described below.
Please note the disclaimer.
IPA |
Since 2007, the EU provides financial assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina through Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) which aims to prepare potential and candidate countries for assuming and effectively implementing obligations of its future membership in the EU. IPA replaces the five previous EU instruments for pre-accession – Phare, ISPA, SAPARD, the Turkey programme, and CARDS. IPA provides targeted and effective support according to the needs of a country. In particular, IPA helps strengthen democratic institutions and the rule of law, reform public administration, carry out economic reforms, promote respect for human as well as minority rights and gender equality, support the development of civil society and advance regional co-operation, and contribute to sustainable development and poverty reduction. These reforms will provide BiH citizens with better opportunities and allow for development of standards equal to the ones enjoyed by EU citizens. Bosnia and Herzegovina had access to two out of five IPA components under the IPA programming period 2007-2013, based on its potential Candidate Country status, namely:
The total value of the EU’s financial assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina through IPA funds for the period 2007-2013 amounts to approximately 594 million EUR. For the IPA programming period 2014-2020 or so-called "IPA II", the situation is different. As the assistance is no longer organised by components, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a potential candidate country, can profit from the same assistance as the candidate countries. The most important element of IPA II is its strategic focus. IPA II also allows for a more systematic use of sector budget support. IPA II targets reforms within the framework of pre-defined sectors. These sectors cover areas closely linked to the enlargement strategy. In the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the following areas will be in focus:
This sector approach promotes structural reform that will help transform a given sector and bring it up to EU standards. It allows a move towards a more targeted assistance, ensuring efficiency, sustainability and focus on results. IPA II gives more weight to performance measurement: indicators agreed with the beneficiaries will help assess to what extent the expected results have been achieved. It is important to note that rather than drawing from pre-determined annual budgets, Bosnia and Herzegovina must develop country-wide sector strategies in order to access funds. For this reason it is not possible to say exactly how much of the funds BiH will use – it will depend on the number of strategies produced. This assistance is managed by the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina. More information: http://europa.ba/Default.aspx?id=15&lang=EN |
EIDHR |
European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) was launched in 2006 for the programming period 2007-2013 with the aim of providing support to the promotion of democracy and human rights in non-EU countries. The programme was open to civil society organisations which play an important role in the process of consolidating democracy and promoting human rights. These organisations should also be solid partners for the Government in pushing forward reforms, completing the transition process and promoting European integration. In Bosnia and Herzegovina it was supporting projects which were selected through a call for proposal published at www.europa.ba in different areas, for example support to women victims of war, support to Roma marginalised communities, support to youth employment, support to LGBTI, and many others. EIDHR will be implemented also in the programming period 2014-2020. More information: http://europa.ba/Default.aspx?id=34&lang=EN |
IfS |
The Instrument for Stability (IfS) is in force since 1 January 2007 and it replaced several instruments in the fields of drugs, mines, uprooted people, crisis management, rehabilitation and reconstruction. It is a strategic tool designed to address a number of global security and development challenges in complement to geographic instruments. IfS also enables the EU to help build long-term international, regional and national capacity to address pervasive transregional and global threats. In Bosnia and Herzegovina it supports mostly the destruction of unstable and dangerous ammunition, and youth peace advocates. In the programming period 2014-2020, the instrument is renamed as the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP). More information: http://eeas.europa.eu/ifs/index_en.htm |