Past projects
You can read more about our past projects here.
Danish support to the resettlement of refugees in the Balkans, including Serbia (DKK 10 mil, 2013-2018):
The refugee status remained undecided for a large group of the millions of people who were displaced during the wars in the former Yugoslavia. Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, with the support of the international community (including the UNHCR and OSCE), formulated a common regional resettlement program, which aims to ensure a lasting settlement of approximately 73,500 refugees and internally displaced persons.
A donor fund was established in support of the implementation of a resettlement program with input from a variety of donors. The fund was administered by the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB). Denmark provided DKK 10 mil.
Read more: http://www.regionalhousingprogramme.org/
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Danish support to green portal operations (2016-2017):
In 2016-2017, the Danish Embassy supported the work of the online portal Balkan Green Energy News. Balkan Green Energy News is a project of the Centre for Promotion of Sustainable Development, a non-profit CSO from Belgrade, Serbia whose mission is to promote and facilitate implementation of sustainable development concept in Serbia and other Balkan region countries through awareness raising campaign, advocacy, information dissemination, education of relevant stakeholders and events organization.
The portal reports on sustainable energy (renewable energy, energy efficiency), electric vehicles, environmental protection, waste and water management developments from a selection of accurate, reliable and straight to the point news, policy actions and investment opportunities.
As part of cooperation agreement, Balkan Green Energy News also published news and articles about Danish solutions within sustainability sector.
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Danish support to project focusing on strengthening the Civil Society to Advocate for Sustainable Energy Transition (DKK 0,5 mil, 2016-2017):
Denmark granted 0.5 million DKK (EUR 67,147.44) to the organization Sustainable Energy´s Energy Transition project in Serbia and four other countries.
The Project supported local partner organisations to develop and promote sustainable energy strategies either at local or country level, depending on the country.
In Serbia, Sustainable Energy is cooperating with CEKOR who works at the local level.
Read more:
http://www.inforse.org/europe/ASET.htm
http://sustainableenergy.dk/
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Media Freedom Project (DKK 0,8 mil, 2014-2017):
The Embassy supported Slavko Curuvija Foundation's (SCF) “Advancing Media Freedom in Serbia” project.
Through this project, SCF worked on informing general public in Serbia about all issues of relevance to the freedom of media in Serbia – especially that of local media outlets. The main platform for this was “Cenzolovka” website (www.cenzolovka.rs) which provides news, study reports, analysis and expert opinions on different events and processes that critically influence the extent of media freedom in Serbia.
Part of the grant was also used to organize study trips for local media owners and managers to Denmark, where they learned about business models that could help build economic sustainability of their own media outlets.
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Danish support in conjunction with the refugee crisis (DKK 2,0 mil, 2015-2016):
Denmark granted 1 million DKK (EUR 134.000) to a Danish Refugee Council project in support of Migration Response Capacities in Serbia.
The project supported the Government of Serbia and local self-governments in the realization of Local Action Plans on migration management and in the improvement of refugees’ access to information, protection mechanisms and needed reception assistance.
Furthermore, Denmark granted ‘Save the Children’ in Serbia with the same amount (1 mill DKK), aiming to provide support to mothers and babies and running a mobile protected area for children.
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Fruits & Berries - Support to agriculture in Southern Serbia (DKK 40 mil, 2010-2016):
Fruits & Berries was a large-scale programme under the Danish Neighbourhood programme. F&B goal was to contribute to sustainable economic growth and employment in the private sector in southern Serbia through enhanced productivity, competitiveness and exports in value chains around fruit products. The project contributed to creating more than 800 jobs, increased annual production by 5.207 tons of fruits and berries and increased annual revenues by EUR 1.3 million. The project was implemented in cooperation with the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.
The program had two components: (1) capacity building of producers / companies (including support for innovation, quality and certification) and (2) a grant facility to finance investment in new fruit and berry varieties, equipment, storage, processing and marketing. Serbia co-finances the grant facility with DKK 29 mil.
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Support for judicial reforms (DKK 2,5 mil. 2008-2016):
Support for juridical reforms, including capacity building of the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary, with particular focus on the areas covered by the EU negotiating chapters 23 and 24. The program was implemented by the World Bank. Among the major donors were the European Union, Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway.
Read more: http://mdtfjss.org.rs/en
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Support to the ombudsman institution (2014):
The Embassy supported the ombudsman institution through two projects initiated in 2014. The projects were Drafting the Model Law on State Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance and the implementation of the Information Security Management System for citizens’ classified information in Ombudsman’s possession.
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Support for the energy sector (DKK 0.5 mil, 2014):
The objective was to assist in the review of Serbian legislation concerning energy efficiency as a part of the preparation of the EU accession negotiations and the pre-accession reforms. A new phase of support to the energy sector was under preparation.
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Flood relief 2014:
During the floods in May 2014 the Danish Emergency Management Agency, part of the Danish Ministry of Defence, sent 26 volunteers, 12 vehicles and two pump modules to Serbia to assist the country in its fight against the floods. A number of Danish companies in Serbia also gave a contribution. Thus, Carlsberg, COWI, Danfoss, Ever Rest, Grundfos, Novo Nordisk, Tomex and Velux donated pumps, shelters, food, medicine and capital to the troubled area. Finally, a Dane from the Danish Emergency Management Agency was head of the UN team (UNDAC), which aimed to assess and coordinate disaster response in the region.
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Serbia and Kosovo: European Perspectives and Practicalities (2013-2014):
This project sought to contribute to improving the relations between Serbia and Kosovo through initiation of dialogue on mutual economic relations and prospects in the process of European integration. The project was implemented during the second half of 2013 and first half of 2014 by the European Movement in Serbia, in cooperation with the Institute for Development Policy INDEP from Pristina, with the support of the Danish Embassy in Belgrade.
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LEDIB - Local Economic Development in the Balkans (2007-2012):
The Local Economic Development in the Balkans (LEDIB) was a large-scale programme under the Danish Neighbourhood programme initiated to support the promotion of growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in southern Serbia.
Based in the city of Niš LEDIB became a well-known brand during 2007-2012 due to its massive provision of technical assistance and support to small and medium-sized companies as well as to public institutions.
The programme was divided into two components:
The Enabling Business Environment Component that helped local authorities to establish good basic conditions for SMEs to develop. This support aimed to help business organisations to promote the necessity for SMEs and generally to help the interaction between the public and private sector.
and The SME Development component that supported SMEs' development via cluster development and supported the improvement of Business Development Services. The programme also made good basis for synergy between the supported sectors and entities and promote examples of best practices.
One of the main results was the “Cluster House”, an umbrella organization for clusters located in the vicinity of Nis. The Cluster House provides advice on e.g. management, education, communication and cooperates with clusters in the rest of Serbia and in the Balkans. You can read more about the Cluster House here.