General overview of the current situation

The European Union (EU) began negotiations on a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with Serbia and Montenegro on the 10th of October 2005. Since Montenegro separation, Serbia has remained a single successor of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in all international institutions. The Serbian SAA negotiations were stopped, but European Commission (EC) continues relations with the authorities on ongoing programmes and tasks. The negotiations on the resolution of Kosovo status, which is currently under United Nations (UN) administration, are in progress.

Lessons learned

Prior to January 1st 2007 cross-border cooperation (CBC) programmes between Member States, and on the other hand Members States and candidate or potential candidate countries were implemented through an array of different instruments such as Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stabilisation (CARDS), The Adriatic Transfrontier Interreg III Operating Programme and Central Adriatic Danube and South-Eastern European Space (CADSES) Neighbourhood Programme. The CARDS 2003 Regional Action Programme included a Technical Assistance project for Cross-Border Institution Building (CBIB) value at € 2.0 million.

The CARDS 2004 Regional Action Programme provided funds for the participation of Western Balkan countries in cross–border and transnational cooperation programmes with neighbouring Member States and prospective Member States (Romania and Bulgaria).

The CARDS 2005 Regional Action Programme continued the support for participation in Neighbourhood Programmes and allocated additional funds to initiate CBC programmes at the borders between Western Balkans countries themselves.

In terms of the concept of the borders, under the new neighbourhood framework the Western Balkans external borders of Serbia are now with Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, while the Western Balkans internal borders are with Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania.

Until now, Serbia had experience in CBC Programmes on the EU external borders: Serbia – Hungary (border 151km) with budget of € 1.8 million, Serbia - Romania (border 476km) with budget of € 2.8 million and Serbia - Bulgaria (border 318km) with JSPF for € 400,000 and the Capacity Building Grant Scheme €1.55 million which has been launched.
 

The way of future - IPA 2007 - 2013

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

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.