BELGRADE, Serbia -The preparatory meeting for the MARRI Regional Forum in Tirana was held at the premises of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro in Belgrade on 3-4 March 2005 and was organised by the Chairmanship-in Office of MARRI Regional Forum (Albania), forthcoming Chairmanship in Office (Serbia and Montenegro) and MARRI Regional Centre in Skopje, with the participation of political directors from MFAs and MOIs from five SAp countries of the Western Balkans and representatives of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe.
The purpose of the preparatory meeting was to finalise the arrangements needed for the organization of the forthcoming Regional Forum Meeting in Tirana – organized together by the MARRI Regional Forum Chairmanship in Office (Albania) and its Secretariat – MARRI Regional Centre in Skopje, including the main document – Draft Declaration – expected to be adopted during the Meeting by high level political representatives of five countries of Western Balkans.
As it was apparent that the network of regular data exchange among five MARRI Member States was lacking, the aim of the meeting was to take concrete steps towards establishment, for the first time, of a mechanism for gathering and exchange of information and to agree on methods, frequency and structure of information to be shared as a precondition for further action in order to:
- identify fields for future activities carried out by the MARRI Regional Centre on national and regional level,
- avoid duplication and overlapping with other activities carried out by other programs,
- extend cooperation in this field among five MARRI Member States,
- use the statistics for early warning,
- establish a common policy towards new European trends in this field (common European asylum system).