Europeans hope aid cultivates democracy in Balkans

March 30, 2000
Web posted at: 1:20 a.m. EST (0620 GMT)

In this story: EU to put up $530 million 'Montenegro has taken a different path' RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- European governments are pledging to speed the delivery of up to $1.8 billion in economic aid to southeastern Europe as EU states seek to isolate Serbia within a ring of prosperous democracies.

At an aid conference in Brussels, the European states offered Wednesday to raise the money for projects that they hope will improve the quality of life in the region. The money will keep coming if governments on the receiving end follow through with promises of democratic reform, EU officials said.

The EU also approved billions in economic aid to the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia -- on the condition that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is removed from power.

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"We're talking today about trying to ring Serbia with prosperous democracies and hope that Serbia follows that course of action itself, sooner rather than later," EU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten said.

Economic sanctions on the former Yugoslavia stem from the Balkan wars of the 1990s and have hampered the country's recovery from last year's 11-week conflict with NATO over Kosovo.

The conference brought representatives of 44 countries, including the 15 EU nations, and 36 international organizations to Brussels. The EU itself will put up $530 million, Patten said.

The intended recipients -- Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia and Romania -- will commit to fostering democratic and economic reforms in exchange for the aid. They proposed more than 400 projects, ranging from roads and bridges to overhauls of banking systems.

Priority is going to cross-border ventures such as a new bridge over the Danube River between Romania and Bulgaria. Improvements to the heavily congested border crossing at Blace between Macedonia and Kosovo also are to be financed under the plan.

The Europeans also are offering financial backing for reconstruction and democratic reform in Montenegro in hopes of fighting off what they say are Belgrade's attempts to destabilize its junior partner in the Yugoslav federation.

"Montenegro has taken a different path to Serbia. We are determined to give the Montenegrin people our support," Patten said.

Montenegro has encouraged ties to the West and distanced itself from Serbia, but its remaining legal ties are holding back potential aid from other sources.

In the case of Kosovo, which remains part of Serbia while under international administration, U.N. resolutions created a trust fund for international aid.

"But no such action was taken in relation to Montenegro, and we are at this moment unable to assist them, since they're not a sovereign state," World Bank President James Wolfensohn said.

Brussels Bureau Chief Patricia Kelly and Reuters contributed to this report.

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