The European Union (EU) has provided funding support to IOM to
implement a second phase of its EU-Community Stabilisation
Programme (EU-CSP) to run through December 2014 to improve the
socio-economic circumstances of vulnerable minority groups in
Kosovo.

 

These include ethnic Serbs, members of Kosovo’s Roma,
Ashkali, and Egyptian (RAE), Turk, Gorani, Bosniak and Croat
communities, as well as Albanian communities living in
municipalities with a predominantly Serb population in northern
Kosovo.

The 30-month EUR 3 million programme will target minority
communities in 29 of the 38 municipalities of Kosovo, where
minority groups are particularly affected by unemployment and
poverty.

“With unemployment rates among these communities running
at 60 to 80 per cent, the socio-economic needs, especially among
the young, remain daunting,” says IOM programme manager
Andrew Phelan.

To enhance the employment prospects of the targeted communities,
the programme will provide technical assistance and productive
business assets to aspiring entrepreneurs and will support on-going
or start-up ventures. Community-driven projects will also be
supported.

EU-CSP II, which builds on the achievements of EU-CSP I, which
ran from May 2010 to June 2012, will again be implemented in close
coordination with the European Union, Kosovo’s Ministry for
Community and Returns, municipal officials and local
stakeholders.

The EU office in Kosovo heralded the EU-CSP I as one of the best
EU-funded programmes in Kosovo It implemented 179 new and existing
micro-enterprises and 61 community development projects. It created
262 full-time and 201 part-time jobs and secured 401 other jobs.
Overall, it impacted the lives of over 51,000 people, including
beneficiary families, employees and members of the wider
community.

For more information please contact

Andrew Phelan

IOM Prishtina

Tel: + 381 38 249 040

Email: "mailto:aphelan@iom.int">aphelan@iom.int