The Head of Cooperation Sector at the Delegation of the EU to Serbia, Holger Schroeder and the Head of the Third Sector of Operations at DEU, Richard Masha, visited today the works on the construction of the building of the Bujanovac Department of the Faculty of Economics from Subotica, financed by the European Union with the contribution from the Governments of Switzerland and the Republic of Serbia through the European PROGRES development programme.
The works on the construction of this building are drawing to a close and the first students will start attending classes already in October 2015. The new building will have six modern classrooms for 60 to 80 students, an amphitheatre, premises for the student parliament and an administrative department with the total surface area of 2,300 square meters. Thus, the current and future students will acquire their higher education in a modern building with top-quality equipment.
The Department of the Faculty of Economics from Subotica commenced work in October 2011 and it currently has around 350 students attending marketing, finance, banking and insurance and agrarian economy and agribusiness.
The European Union and the Swiss Government provided around 800.000 EUR for the construction of the building through the European PROGRES programme. It is planned that the Municipality of Bujanovac and the Government of Serbia should support the project with around 280.000 EUR through the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja. Therefore, the construction of the building is done in partnership of these institutions.
The representatives of the EU Delegation visited the construction site together with the Mayor of the municipality of Bujanovac, Nagip Arifi, president of the Coordination Body, Zoran Stankovic and the Dean, Nenad Vunjak.
“I am very pleased that the construction is almost over since this is the biggest investment of the European Union in the area of education in South Serbia. According to the information that I received from the field, the students should start attending the classes in this building in line with the deadlines of the adopted curricula” said the Head of Cooperation Sector at the Delegation of the EU, Holger Schroeder.
The representatives of the EU Delegation also visited Presevo where they met with the municipal representatives and visited the collective reception centre for migrants in Presevo and Miratovac.
“During the next weeks beds, matrasses, blankets, pillows, bed sheets, mobile toilets, PET disposal containers and water tanks will be delivered to the Presevo centre through the European PROGRES as part of the assistance to Serbia for resolving the refugee crisis,” said Schroeder.
The European Union and the Government of Switzerland will support the activities of the European PROGRES, a programme contributing to sustainable development of South and South West Serbia, with almost 24.46 million EUR. The approved projects will aim to strengthen the local administration, create enabling environment for development of infrastructure and economy as well as improved implementation of social inclusion and employment policy. The activities are implemented on site by the United Nations Office for Project Services – UNOPS.
