Keys for 40 apartments for refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia were handed over today in Sremska Mitrovica undred the second subproject of the Regional Housing Programme in the Republic of Serbia (RHP). The project is financed by the Fund of the Regional Housing Programme with 680.000 Euros, along with the contribution of the City of Sremska Mitrovica of 14.5 million dinars. Contractor is a building company "Diagonal" ltd Novi Sad.

Subproject 2 of the RHP is worth a a little over 13 million euros and a total of 200 apartments are built in nine units of local self-government within this subproject. Moreover, 250 rural households have been purchased, 120 prefabricated houses have been built and 330 packages of building materials have been delivered.

The ceremony was attended by Ivica Dacic, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of the Commission for Coordination of the Process of Integration of Refugees of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Vladimir Sanader, Mayor of Sremska Mitrovica, Vladimir Cucic, Commissioner for Refugees and Migration, Yngve Engstroem, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation, Stephan Sellen, Deputy Director of the Directorate General for Loans and Social Development, Council of Europe Development Bank, Hans F. Schodder, Representative of UNHCR in Serbia, Joseph Mellott, the Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Dragan Katuca Director of the Project Implementation Unit in the public sector, and many other officials and RHP partners from the region.

"The Serbian government together with other partners remains strongly committed and engaged in the implementation of the Regional Housing Programme, which will provide a roof over the head for more than six thousand families in Serbia. For me personally, this day has a special symbolism and arouses the emotions of triumphs that we achieved in a short time, triumphs not only in the construction and urban sense, but in the sense that enables the continuation of the construction of human life on healthy grounds," said Ivica Dacic, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia.

Commissioner Cucic thanked the beneficiaries for patiently waiting for the roof over their heads for the past twenty years.

"We are in the stage when we build apartments in a large number of cities throughout Serbia and deliver other forms of housing solutions by which we are finally closing this difficult and tormenting chapter. I wish you a long, healthy and happy life under a new roof, "said Commissioner Cucic.

"The European Union is strongly committed to the common EU-Serbia goal of providing the remaining most vulnerable refugees from the war in ex-Yugoslavia with durable housing solutions. Our aim is to reach altogether 3 800 completed housing units by the end of 2018,"  highlighted Yngve Engstroem from the EU Delegation.