Overview

1995: The Dayton/Paris Peace Agreement brought the war to an end and established two Entities of roughly equal size in Bosnia and Herzegovina: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska.

1997: Regional Approach. The EU Council of Ministers established political and economic conditionality for the development of bilateral relations. Bosnia and Herzegovina benefits from autonomous trade preferences and from 1996, assistance under the Phare and Obnova programmes.

1998: EU Declaration. Establishment of the EU/Bosnia and Herzegovina Consultative Task Force (CTF), a joint vehicle for technical and expert advice in the field of administration, the regulatory framework and policies.

1999: Stabilization and Association Process (SAP). The SAP offers a clear prospect of integration into EU structures to Bosnia and Herzegovina and four other countries of the region.

2001: First year of the CARDS assistance programme specifically designed for the SAP countries. This programme replaced the Phare and Obnova programmes for the countries of the SAP. Adoption of the Country Strategy Paper for 2002 to 2006.

2003: Following substantial completion of the Road Map, work is underway on a Feasibility Study for the opening of negotiations on a Stabilization and Association Agreement.

Lessons Learned

Prior to January 1st 2007 cross-border cooperation (CBC) between Member States, and on the other hand, Members States and candidate or potential candidate countries was implemented through an array of different instruments such as Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stabilisation (CARDS) and The Adriatic Transfrontier Interreg III Operating Programme Neighbourhood Programme.

In terms of the concept of the borders, under the new neighbourhood framework the external Western Balkans borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina are with Italy, while the internal borders include those with Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.

Thus far, Bosnia and Herzegovina has had experience with CBC programmes on the EU external borders: Bosnia and Herzegovina – Italy (ADRIATIC II).

The way of future - IPA CBC 2007-2009

Starting as of January 1st 2007 Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) will be introduced and will replace the previously existing pre-accession instruments thus uniting under a single legal basis all pre accession assistance.

The border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia is the longest, and has three eligible regions with fifty nine eligible municipalities. Some of these municipalities were previously involved in the CBC programmes. They were eligible for ADRIATIC II CBC programme.

The border between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina is 302 kilometres long, and has two eligible regions, where both regions have twenty eight eligible municipalities.

The border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro has one eligible region with seven eligible municipalities.

The CBIB project will support establishment of the operating structures (including Joint Technical Secretariat and Joint Monitoring Committee), preparation of the cross-border programme for each border and establishing of the project pipeline.