The MARRI Regional Centre presents a Briefing Paper on the EU’s migration strategic and policy framework that provides an overview of two strategic migration-related documents of the European Commission: The European Agenda on Migration and the EU Migration Partnership Framework; highlighting initiatives, proposals and actions relevant to the Western Balkan region.
The publication is compiled for the needs of the MARRI Participants. It is based on MARRI’s regional approach to cooperation on migration issues, with a view on the common needs, challenges and priorities of its Participants in their EU accession process.
In the migration context, the Western Balkans is a region of transit and, to a lesser extent, region of destination for refugees and migrants. At the same time, it is a region of origin for Western Balkan nationals who request asylum in EU Member States and Schengen associated countries.
In it’s most recent State of Play report on the Western Balkans route, published in February 2016, the EC pointed out that the most pressing challenge for the region is restoring orderly management of borders with an aim to avoid unilateral decisions which may have a domino effect[1]. Other migration-related challenges include strengthening the capacity of migration management authorities to ensure safe and orderly transit of migrants, as well as improving inter- sectorial cooperation and information exchange with a view to address the lack of reliable data on the scope and structure of migration flows[2].
With this publication, MARRI RC will start a series of analytical briefing notes on migration-related developments in the Western Balkans region with a view to provide updated information to the regional and national migration management stakeholders.
[1] European Commission, “Implementing the European Agenda on Migration: Commission reports on progress in Greece, Italy and the Western Balkans”, press release (February 2016), available at: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-269_en.htm
[2] European Commission Progress Reports for candidate and potential candidate countries (November 2016), available at: https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/countries/package_en