The European Commission today adopted a strategy for programming €197 million in assistance over the coming three years, focused on tackling regional problems in the western Balkans and on raising levels of regional co-operation between the countries of the region. Addressing these issues is a key goal within the Stabilisation and Association Process, the cornerstone of the EU's policy towards the western Balkan. The main priorities to be focused upon with these funds are management of international borders, regional infrastructure development and helping the countries build stronger national institutions.

The European Commission today adopted the "CARDS Regional Strategy Paper" that provides a strategic framework for programming the regional envelope of the European Community's CARDS assistance programme for the western Balkans in the period 2002-2006.

CARDS supports the participation of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in the Stabilisation and Association process (SAp) which is the cornerstone of the EU's policy in the region. The SAp is an ambitious strategy that helps the region to secure political and economic stabilisation while also developing a closer association with the EU, opening a road towards eventual EU membership once the conditions have been met.

Regional cooperation is a critical component within the SAp, essentially extending the EU's own philosophy to the western Balkan region that deeper cooperation with neighbouring countries is a route to national as well as regional stability and growth and that such cooperation serves the mutual interests of all countries concerned.Some 10% of the available CARDS budget will be directed to supporting this regional cooperation component - totalling, in the period 2002-2004, €197 million. The CARDS Regional Strategy Paper identifies four areas for support:

• integrated border management will be supported to help to tackle cross-border crime, to facilitate trade across borders and to stabilise the border regions themselves,

• institutional capacity building will help raise awareness of EU policy and laws that the region should increasingly be moving towards,

• support to democratic stabilisation will help to cement advances on democracy and boost the involvement of civil society in the region's development and

• support will be provided to help plan the integration of the region's transport, energy and environmental infrastructure into the wider European networks.

These areas have been selected because of their contribution to regional cooperation or because the support can be best delivered at the regional level.

Background Information

In the 1990's, the European Union's political, trade and financial relations with the western Balkan region focused on crisis management and reconstruction, reflecting the countries' emergency needs at that time. The European Community's assistance programmes to these countries were substantial, totalling some €5.5 billion.

However, as the region emerges from this difficult period, a more long-term approach to its development is clearly required. To this end, the European Union launched the Stabilisation and Association Process (SAp) in 1999 which is now the cornerstone of its policy to the western Balkan region.

The preparation, negotiation and implementation of Stabilisation and Association Agreements (governing political, trade and economic relations) that are underpinned by the CARDS assistance programme are the EU's principal means of implementing its policy.

The CARDS regulation provides some €4.65 billion for this purpose in the period 2000 to 2006. To achieve its objective of facilitating the SAp, CARDS assistance will finance investment, institution-building and other programmes in four major areas:

• Reconstruction, democratic stabilisation, reconciliation and the return of refugees.

• Institutional and legislative development, including harmonisation with EU norms and approaches, to underpin democracy and the rule of law, human rights, civil society and the media, and the operation of a free market economy.

• Sustainable economic and social development, including structural reform.

• Promotion of closer relations and regional cooperation among SAp countries and between them, the European Union and the candidate countries of central Europe.

To ensure careful preparation and prioritisation, strategies for programming this CARDS support to 2006 for each of the five countries concerned and for regional cooperation have been prepared. The Regional Strategy is the first to be decided upon, as outlined in this press release. The five national strategies focus on the other more national problems that the countries face and will be released by the end of the year.

Developing CARDS is only one part of the maturing SA process - it will be complemented in 2002 with a deepening political dialogue backed up by annual reports on how well each of the countries in the process are meeting their SAP goals.

http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/see/index.htm