Forty-four countries and some 37 international organisations were represented here yesterday for the start of a two-day conference devoted to pledging funding for the reconstruction of the Balkans. The meeting, which is expected to raise some €1.8 billion for "quick-start projects", is sponsored by the European Commission and the World Bank.
Ireland is expected today to double its regional contribution to some €16 million, largely to support troop deployment and democracy and human rights projects. The Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr Padraic McKernan, is representing Ireland.
Officials say they expect the targets for funding to be met.
At last weekend's EU summit in Lisbon, European leaders also gave impetus to the Balkans' stabilisation process by giving the External Relations Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, and the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Mr Javier Solana, special responsibility for co-ordinating the EU intervention.
The EU is taking a regional approach in the framework of the post-Kosovo Stability Pact. The pact rewards states and groups for co-operating with neighbours. It focuses on the stimulation of multilateral trade and economic interdependence that should make conflict increasingly difficult.
The conference, Mr Patten said yesterday, was taking a regional approach and recognised that "coping with crisis after crisis is far more costly than implementing a long-term strategy for peace."
He said the European Commission would request €5.5 billion in budgetary funding from EU member-states over the next six years for the region, including Serbia. "Post-Milosevic Serbia, that is," he said. "We're pencilling in a substantial sum to transform Serbia once Milosevic is gone," Mr Patten said. "But while Milosevic is in power, the serious money stays in the vault."
The regional versus national approach, said the World Bank president, Mr James Wolfensohn, was the innovation in this conference. "The countries of the region cannot do it alone," he said. "If we put walls around each country there's very little chance of growth."
Controversially, the meeting included representatives of the Serbian opposition and of Montenegro, formally part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Both will receive funding.
The short-term, so-called "quick-start" projects targeted for the region include repair or restoration of roads, ports, airports and bridges, particularly a second highway bridge linking Bulgaria and Romania over the Danube.
