The European Commission has approved a new support package for the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood of just over €23 million to help improve security, boost trade and increase mobility for people living in the region by implementing border management rules and adopting best practices on the Armenian-Georgian and Ukrainian-Belarus borders in line with EU standards.A press release said this project, which is part of the Eastern Partnership Flagship Initiative on Integrated Border Management (IBM), will help “reduce corruption, smuggling and people trafficking in the area and making it safer as a result.”
“Making borders more efficient not only helps making countries more secure, it also opens up trade and job opportunities,” said Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Commissioner Štefan Füle, adding he was pleased that “thanks to this new package of support, we are providing millions of people in Eastern Partnership countries with more opportunities to make a living and be more mobile in their daily lives.”
The new funding will also support multilateral activities of the Eastern Partnership, in particular meetings and seminars of the Eastern Partnership multilateral platforms and the Civil Society Forum.
Other regional cooperation initiatives in the Eastern Neighbourhood, such as the Northern Dimension and the Black Sea Synergywill also receive EU support, the press release said.
Today’s new support makes up the second part of the 2012 Regional Action Programme for the Eastern Neighbourhood, funded under the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI – the main financial and cooperation instrument for the Eastern Partnership countries and Russia). The first part of the programme was worth €22 million.
The second part of the Programme includes:
· Support for the multilateral dimension of the Eastern Partnership.
· Integrated border management pilot project that aims at increasing security on the borders and facilitating the movement of people and goods for the Bagratashen-Sadakhlo border crossing point between Armenia and Georgia.
· Integrated border management pilot project to help create an electronic system of pre-arrival information exchange between the customs authorities of Belarus and Ukraine.
· Funding for information activities and programme preparation.