On the occasion of the launching of the Second Call for Proposals within the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Serbia –Montenegro 2014-2020 the Ministry of European Integration of Government of Republic of Serbia and the the European Integration Office of the Government of Montenegro, within support of Joint Technical Secretariat, organized Kick Off conference and Informative session.

On Monday, 16 September 2019 at the Hotel “Hilton” in Podgorica Kick Off was held.

The conference was opened by Ivana Glišević Djurovic, Deputy Chief Negotiator-national IPA coordinator of the Government of Montenegro. On this occasion, Ms Glišević Djurovic stressed the importance of the cross-border cooperation between Serbia and Montenegro, which started in 2008, within which through the four public Calls for proposals so far 43 projects were contracted, with a total value of 9.6 million euros.

The conference attendees were addressed by Mihajilo Dašić, Assistant Minister for cross-border and transnational cooperation in the Ministry for European Integration of the Republic of Serbia. Membership of Serbia and Montenegro into the EU is a strategic goal of our countries and achievable only with the support and consensus of all citizens on this issue. The aim of cross border cooperation Calls that are realized within the framework of the Financial Instrument for pre-accession assistance is not only to attract significant financial resources but also to prepare non EU countries for the use of European funds through the European cohesion policy – Dašić said.

At the end of the introductory statement, Ms Alexandra Pesch, Programme Manager for Cross-border Cooperation, Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia noticed that the cross border programmes encourages cooperation among people and made direct investment to the local initiatives at local communities.

After the Kick Off, first Info Day was organized. In total more than 80 people, representatives of different institutions, attended the events and had opportunity to get information about the Call.  CFCU and JTS staff prepared several presentations with useful information.