Europaworld 28/6/2002 European Commission Winds up Humanitarian Operations in Montenegro

"The humanitarian emergency has now ended in Montenegro. Thanks to the assistance provided by the Humanitarian Aid Office, displaced and refugee populations, as well as local people, have been able to confront and overcome enormous difficulties. ECHO has accomplished its mission and is now making way for other European Commission instruments to take over", declared Poul Nielson, the Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid. Between 1999 and 2001, Montenegro has benefited from €34.5 million in humanitarian aid spent in sectors such as health and rehabilitation.

Some ten years after starting its activities in Montenegro, and having managed several crises, ECHO is now leaving Montenegro. This withdrawal has been made possible thanks to the improvement in the situation. It signifies that the purely humanitarian mission of ECHO has now come to an end. It also underlines the end of a painful period for the local population.

The ECHO office in Podgorica was officially closed during a ceremony, in the presence of Montenegrin Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic.

ECHO intervened in Montenegro as soon as the crisis in the Balkans started in 1992. Since then, it has focused its assistance on the essential needs of displaced people, while also providing substantial aid to the host population. In 1999, during the Kosovo crises, ECHO reacted rapidly, adapting its funding to new needs created by the sudden arrival of tens of thousands of people.

After three years of substantial interventions in favour of the most vulnerable groups in Montenegro, ECHO can now leave. This departure does not mean the end of the European Union's support to Montenegro, since other instruments, better adapted to the current situation, in particular the European Agency for Reconstruction, are already operational.