EU and Sweden present new Project for the Employment of marginalized People in BiH

The project, financed by the European Union with four million euros and Sweden with one million euros, will be realized in the next three years.

The goal of the “EU4Employment” project is to improve the socio-economic situation and living conditions in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the employment of young people, women in rural areas and other vulnerable individuals.

Head of the EU Delegation in BiH, Johann Sattler, said that there is an exodus of young people in BiH and that on the other hand, there are groups of hard-to-employ people, primarily referring to marginalized groups of the population.

“Just look around the corner from the EU Delegation in BiH, where the German Embassy in BiH is. This is a testimony and confirmation of what is happening, which is that we are losing our workforce,” he pointed out.

The goal of the project, he added, is to provide training for more than 1,200 people. Sattler emphasized that around 600 people will find a job.

“We need to work on that, and that is to create jobs so that people stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The political atmosphere is also important here, but I am glad that a step forward was made by obtaining candidate status,” said Sattler.

Director General of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Carin Jämtin, expressed hope that, through this aid, they will apply a structural approach to solving the high unemployment rate in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that together with their partners, they will soon see concrete results.

Director of the Office for Central and Eastern Europe of the International Labor Organization, Markus Pilgrim, said that BiH has one of the most challenging labor markets in the Western Balkans, characterized by a relatively high unemployment rate, low labor force participation rate, high youth unemployment rate, very low participation of women and a high share of undeclared work and illegal employment.