In the previous calendar year, Montenegro received EUR 140 million in grants from European funds for new projects, the Ministry of European Affairs announced.
Bojan Vujović from this department said in the Mreža program on TVCG that these funds go through a very strict control process when it comes to their financial management. He stated that the Ministry of European Affairs is working on the preparation of new projects, the RTCG portal reports.
When we talk about European funds, May is the right month for that. The Ministry of European Affairs is working on the preparation of new projects and calls from various programs financed by the European Union. In the previous calendar year, to our great satisfaction, we ended up with slightly more than EUR 140 million in newly approved funds for new projects – said Vujović.
He stated that we very successfully entered the new seven-year program period and reminded that the EU approves grants for the new seven-year budget.So this period, which we tentatively call the third financial period or IPA 3, started in 2021 and we are already working hard on preparing the implementation of these programs – said Vujović. He stated that municipalities from the north of Montenegro often apply for grants.
When it comes to municipalities as local governments, we have different situations. We can praise the municipalities from the north, because they often apply and all those municipalities that have formed teams for writing and implementing programs in time have a better chance of receiving grants – said Vujović.
He said that grants from the European Union go through a very strict process of control when it comes to financial management and added that in this financial period, small and medium-sized companies also have the opportunity to participate in these calls.
The challenge in withdrawing and using European funds is administrative capacity. We are facing a situation where we have a limited scope of people who have acquired the narrow and specific knowledge that is necessary for the use of those funds, but we are trying to recognize the importance of preparing a new base of administrative capacities – concluded Vujović.
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