PRESS RELEASE

Brussels, 26th January 1995.

Emma Bonino will visit Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina his weekend on her first mission in her capacity as Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid. Her programme, from Friday January 27 to Tuesday January 31, will include stops in Zagreb, Sarajevo and Mostar.

"The purpose of my visit is to show support for all those active in humanitarian aid there." she said "We will also aim to check the effectiveness of actions on the spot and to identify any weaknesses in the programmes so that we can improve them.", she added.

Commissioner Bonino will meet Yasushi Akashi, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General, in Zagreb on Friday afternoon, as well as the Croatian Foreign Affair Minister, Mr. Granic. She has a meeting with Alija Izetbegovic, President of Bosnia-Herzegovina, in Sarajevo on Saturday morning, followed by a meeting with his Vice-President, Ejup Granic, immediately afterwards.

The countries of former Yugoslavia have been the main recipients of ECHO aid since the office started operations in 1992. The Euuropean Union is the chief contibutor to the biggest humanitarian aid operation ever organised Actions have been carried out principally by the United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and other non-governmental organisations.

Since the war began in former Yugoslavia, the Union's contribution to humanitarian aid has topped one billion Ecu. In 1994, it granted aid of 269,376,000 Ecu, against 395,080,195 Ecu in 1993, and 277,067,297 Ecu in 1992. In 1994 aid for former Yugoslavia accounted for over 35 per cent of all ECHO grants, and in 1993 the proportion was over 65 percent of the total.