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APARTMENTS FOR SOCIALLY THREATENED PERSONS IN MEDVEDJA

9. July 2010.

Yesterday Milan Markovic, President of the Coordination Body, Vincent Degert, Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Rasim Ljajic, Minister of Labor and Social Policy, and Vladimir Cucic, the Serbian Commissioner for Refugees, opened  an apartment building for social housing and handed over the contracts and keys to the beneficiary families.

The apartment building for social housing was built with the funds of the Instruments of Pre-accession Assistance (IPA funds); while the amount of over 14 million dinars was invested in the said project through the German humanitarian organization Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB). Also, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government provided two million dinars from the funds collected from the games of chance. The municipality of Medvedja provided the construction land and the necessary utilities permits.

Milan Markovic, Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and President of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, voiced hope that the housing problems of displaced persons and refugees would be  solved in the course of 2010 and 2011, since similar facilities were currently being built in 129 municipalities.

”The apartments are for six families of internally displaced persons, as well as for two socially threatened families from the municipality of Medvedja”, said Milan Markovic. He pointed out that by building those and similar apartments in Serbia, the government showed that it pursued a responsible policy.

“This is a serious approach of the government to such issues. It is a beautiful day when you figure out that the policy you had pursued yielded concrete results in the life of the country’s nationals”, said President of the Coordination Body.  

On the occasion of the opening of the apartment building, Vincent Degert expressed satisfaction that Serbia was resolving the refugee issue through good regional cooperation.

„We are witnessing that Serbia establishes good relations with its neighbors and is making progress on the path, which we in the European Union call the region of cooperation, freedom and friendship”, Mr. Degert said.

He reiterated that construction of the housing facilities for displaced persons and refugees meant that problems inherited from the past would be solved and this would provide “prospects for the future”.

Rasim Ljajic pointed out that the number of collective centers in Serbia had considerably decreased over the past few years, while the number of those who had received keys to their apartments increased. According to him, the Government of Serbia, despite a difficult economic crisis, earmarked considerable funds for the most threatened persons, who are, undoubtedly, refugees and internally displaced persons.

”10.890 people were accommodated in such homes and the problems of 426 families were solved until the end of the last year”, R. Ljajic said. “There are still 43 collective centers in Serbia, while there used to be 700 of them in the 1990’s”, he said.

”The good cooperation between project stakeholders is going to continue over the next year, too, with the construction and assignment of six prefabricated buildings, the building of which was also funded from the 2008 EU IPA program for socially threatened and displaced persons, as well as for refugees. In this way, the municipality of Medvedja would solve most of their housing problems”, said Slobodan Draskovic, President of the Municipality of Medvedja.
     
He awarded letters of thanks of the municipality of Medvedja to Ministers Markovic and Ljajic, Ambassador Degert, the Serbian Commissioner for Refugees and to ASB Regional Director for South East Europe.

At the same time, the Day Care Center for Elderly and Ailing People was opened in Medvedja. The project valued at approximately eight million dinars was completed owing to the funds of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and the Coordination Body of the Government of the Republic of Serbia for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.