The EC established the Community Reconstruction, Development and Assistance Programme for the Western Balkans (CARDS) targeting Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Through CARDS, the EC intends to undertake substantial assistance actions in a number of areas, including those related to migration management.
The IOM Missions in the region, at the request and with the encouragement of various government ministries and agencies, were asked to become more fully involved in providing technical assistance for capacity-building in migration management. IOM actions in this regard were consistently framed within the CARDS programme context.
Through this small project an IOM technical specialist was assigned to spend significant time in the region and to meet with the EC in Brussels, ensuring complementary approaches.
To enable this process, this project funded travel support for coordination/consultation between the technical specialist and the countries and IOM missions involved.