Pristina, 8 September -  On 2 September 2010 the European Commission transferred EUR 30 million to Kosovo.

This sum is the first tranche of a EUR 50 million EU Macro-Financial Assistance to Kosovo approved by the Council of the EU.

It is a direct budget grant and was transferred to a government account at the Central bank of Kosovo.

With the approval of the Stand-By Arrangement between the IMF and the Kosovo government, all the requirements for the disbursement of the first tranche of the assistance were met.

The release of the second tranche of EUR 20 million depends on continuing implementation of the agreement with the IMF and on progress in fulfilling a set of specific conditions related to statistics, fiscal transparency and sustainability, procurement, privatisation, restructuring and liquidation of publicly- and socially-owned enterprises.

The EU Macro-Financial Assistance to Kosovo is part of the pledges made at the July 2008 Donors\' Conference for Kosovo to address financing needs identified in Kosovo\'s Medium-Term Expenditure Framework.

Two thirds of the pledged EUR 1.2 billion at this Conference came from the EU. The European Commission, on behalf of the EU, pledged a total of EUR 508.1 million to support Kosovo\'s institution building and socio-economic development.

The pledge of the European Commission was supplemented by bilateral contributions from the EU Member States of additional EUR 285 million.