The European Commission has appropriated 350m euros for Serbia and a further 30m euros for Montenegro in EU pre-accession assistance for 2003, said European Commission official Jan Willem Blankert.

Attending a celebration marking the second year of the European Agency for Reconstruction's (EAR) operations in Serbia, Blankert said that Serbia has to change its legal framework on the road to EU accession, but also to keep a strong and independent central bank.

National Bank of Serbia Governor Mladjan Dinkic said that the EAR disbursed some 15m euros in loans to Serbian small and medium-sized enterprises in the past two years and called on the agency's officials to set aside new funds for the same purpose.

(NewsBase 30.vi.03)