The EU has, through CARDS, helped draw up a detailed assessment of the situation in each country, to identify priorities for reform and assistance. These assessments have pinpointed legislation which needs to be created or updated, or areas where proper enforcement of laws requires staff training or new structures, or ways for courts to improve procedures and access to justice. They make suggestions on how corruption and organised crime can be fought more effectively, or how borders can be more effectively managed, or how co-operation between law enforcement agencies can be enhanced within and between each country in the region.

Building a legal framework is the first step, so CARDS helps ministries improve the legislative process. Institutions are being assisted to administer new laws, and officials are being given new skills and organisational methods. On-the-spot experts from EU member states are funded through “twinning” programmes to share their experience with their counterparts in the region.

Judges and prosecutors are trained in areas such as organised crime, money laundering, company law, bankruptcy, and IT-crime, as well as in ethics and human rights. Civil and criminal procedures are being improved to ensure rapid and professional management of cases and to enhance co-operation with law enforcement agencies. Free legal aid is being funded, courts computerised, and prisons rebuilt.

CARDS projects are also helping upgrade police capacity, with improved management, professionalised recruitment and career development. Assistance is provided on new crime-fighting techniques including intelligence-led policing, witness protection, surveillance, and computerised support together with hardware such as new police vehicles. CARDS is equipping the Interpol bureaux in all five countries with new technology giving real-time access to databases of photographs or fingerprints of wanted persons, or details of stolen property such as vehicles or works of art.

CARDS projects are also helping improve and integrate the management of borders to ease legitimate flows of goods and people, while clamping down on smuggling, trafficking of drugs, weapons and human beings. Border police are better supported by new laws and management systems, training, document-checking instruments, EU-compatible information systems, and by enhanced co-operation in the region and with the EU. Customs services are being assisted to play their full role in combating customs fraud and corruption and at the same time in increasing public revenues from customs duties.

Through CARDS, the EU also assists in promoting asylum and migration policies that meet EU and international standards, along with proper implementation of readmission agreements. The EU is also helping develop screening systems to differentiate economic migrants, trafficked persons and asylum seekers.

Project examples

The EU has granted far-reaching trade concessions to all five countries of the Western Balkans and is promoting a regional free trade area. It is funding change through upgrading transport and energy infrastructure, the provision of macro-economic assistance and through micro-credit lines to the smaller firms and businesses.

It is promoting the emergence of a vibrant private sector, and helping to create a legal framework that meets EU single market rules and favours business development. And it is helping people in the region to take responsibility for finding their own solutions by backing business start-ups that can generate new jobs or helping small savers organise their own credit associations.

CARDS funding is being provided for expert guidance and training on trade, business, and agricultural development, and on issues ranging from public procurement procedures and standards and certification to irrigation and border controls. At the same time, projects to involve local communities in reconstruction help develop a sense of community awareness, and education and vocational training assistance builds up professional skills. At a more visible level, CARDS is also helping to improve the region’s physical infrastructure by upgrading roads, rivers, ports and airports, and by modernising power plants and distribution.

The results include wider employment opportunities, increased business start-ups, easier travel and transport, new housing for refugees, more reliable local services, and administrations more in tune with the needs of citizens. The improved living conditions that CARDS is helping to provide also contribute to easing some of the economic, social and ethnic tensions at local, national and regional level. The economic and social programmes also gain from CARDS assistance in other areas, such as justice and home affairs, democratic stabilisation and administrative capacity building.

As they move closer to the European Union, the countries in the region have to develop economies that can respond to choice and demand, and build societies in which citizens assume an increasing role in running the countries' affairs. CARDS is assisting their efforts to give more play to market forces, to liberalise prices and trade, to remove barriers to market entry and exit, to complete structural reform, privatisation and restructuring of large public companies, and to create a comprehensive financial services sector.

The EU is working with them to assure increased macroeconomic stability by helping increased revenue collection, tighter public expenditure controls and rationalised administrative structures. It is also co-operating in building business confidence through initiatives to encourage the application of the rule of law, tougher action against corruption and bringing the informal sector into the mainstream.

Project examples

EU assistance in this sector is focused on helping societies in the region build and strengthen their own democratic institutions. Support is given to enhance the framework for democracy with training offered to officials to help administrations function correctly. Also important are efforts to build democracy from grass-roots level to eradicate discrimination, reconcile ethnic tensions and improve human and civil rights. The EU is also helping to promote active and effective non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the emergence of vibrant independent media.

Return of refugees and displaced people to their pre-war homes remains a key priority, with support to sustain minority and spontaneous return. The EU is also working to help ensure return is sustainable, through the development of business and employment opportunities in return areas.

Civil society organisations are being helped to contribute to democratic stability and the overall progress of the country. Their partnerships with local authorities are being strengthened so they can articulate and advance the demands and concerns of citizens. This is allowing civil society to play a major role in social, political, cultural and economic life. This often provides alternative channels for expression for marginalised groups such as women and Roma communities, the handicapped and unemployed, and children.

The creation and implementation of anti-discrimination laws has a double value in an area as ethnically complex as the Western Balkans. They help protect a minority community in one of the countries in the region and also provide reassurance to majority groups in other countries that their ethnic cousins are adequately protected in a neighbouring country. In this way, democratic stabilisation can promote acceptance of the European values of co-existence and reconciliation.

Legislation is one of the first steps, so CARDS helps ministries improve the legislative process. Institutions are being assisted to administer new laws on elections, media and support to civil society, and officials are being given new skills and organisational methods. On-the-spot experts from EU member states are funded through "twinning" programmes to share their experiences with their counterparts in the region.

Consolidating democracy means the successful management of refugee return in many parts of the region. This process includes efforts to rebuild homes and infrastructure and promote regional economic development. It also aims to help forge closer links between returnees and local municipalities and NGOs and promote co-operation to help revitalise local economies.

Independent media is being promoted through local training to raise journalistic professionalism and improve editorial independence. Projects are building legal frameworks that match European standards in guaranteeing access to public information and protection for journalists, and promoting regional co-operation between media organisations. The EU has also helped independent media with running costs and the purchase of equipment, and is increasingly focused on encouraging an environment where professional and independent media can function properly.

Project examples

Sustainable development is at the heart of EU policy and fundamental to balanced growth. This can only be achieved if environmental issues are dealt with adequately. However, across much of the Western Balkans environmental planning is inadequate and recent neglect of environmental considerations have left many scars, both visible and invisible.

EU assistance is focused in a number of ways. Urgent attention has been paid to "hot spots" that present immediate threats, such as local contamination caused by heavy metal and other by-products from obsolete industries. Assistance provides rapid remedies, through specific "quick-start" programmes that provide funds to focus the attention of banks, international financial institutions and non-governmental organisations.

Institution building takes the form of training and associated investment support, creating a framework to ensure the law covers all companies, both private and public, and to permit successful infringement cases for breaches of environmental law.

The EU is also involved in training small banks and local authorities on how to lend, borrow and monitor the use of money for environmental projects helping the region to secure loans from international institutions. This local expertise becomes increasingly necessary to fill the gap left as countries shift away from reliance on the diminishing donations of humanitarian and emergency aid, and towards economic self-sufficiency.

Because regional co-operation is vital to deal with risks posing a trans-boundary threat, notably water and air pollution, the EU is encouraging collaboration through regional and cross border projects so that national administrations learn to work effectively with one another. A regional approach is also central to the preservation of the many natural parks and lakes that straddle borders. Agreeing regional level priorities is an essential tool in modernising environmental management and co-operation is encouraged to bring together ministries, parliaments, and non-governmental organisations. This gives a higher profile to environment at national level and promotes the exchange of ideas on the best solutions for common problems.

The EU also helps in promoting the recognition that ultimately these measures must be self-financing, employing appropriate mechanisms, such as tariff models, public-private partnership options, and privatisation or leasing concessions.

Specific reinforcement mechanisms complement EU assistance in the region. The Regional Environmental Reconstruction Programme for South Eastern Europe (REReP) helps improve the environmental policy framework through institution building, measures for raising environmental awareness in civil society, and cross border co-operation, and has helped the emergence of a sense of regional ownership of policies among environment ministries.

Regional networks of senior officials and experts are developing, and the countries are now participating in the activities of the European Environment Agency. Also as part of a regional water resources strategy, the DABLAS (Danube-Black Sea) Task Force has identified trans-boundary management priorities.

Project examples

EU assistance is directed at promoting the reform of public administration so that government can function more effectively. Reform can only succeed if support systems are in place for such areas as policy planning, inter-ministerial co-ordination, government decision-making, civil service regulations, human resources management, budget procedures and quality control.

EU assistance in this area has focused on a wide range of issues to strengthen capacity including trade; customs; plant health and veterinary services; standards and certification; public procurement; competition and state aid; consumer protection; and intellectual, industrial and commercial property rights.

Assistance has been given to draft new legislation to meet European standards, and equipment and specialised training have been provided. In addition, independent environmental agencies and inspectorates have also been set up.

The operation of justice has also been a priority area for assistance as the police and the judiciary are not only public services themselves but are also entrusted to uphold the law. Thus, courts and prosecutors have been helped to combat corruption, legal systems have been assessed to identify weaknesses, and internal and external control and audit systems have been designed to deter malpractice.

Police forces are also being provided with modern equipment for the exchange of information and high-tech communication systems compliant to EU standards. This is accompanied by comprehensive training on investigation techniques and management.

Legal frameworks for the financing of political parties have received attention to provide for independent controls, and help has been given to allow minorities a fair share in the public life of their country.

The European Union has also set up a series of Customs and Fiscal Assistance Offices in the countries of the region, to help boost customs revenue and cut fraud, corruption and money laundering. Much of the assistance has been at a technical level, transferring necessary skills to local officials, and putting in place automated systems for customs data that allow complete import and export statistics to be collected. Recommendations have also been made to governments on organisational structure, and new units responsible for trade control, debt management, intelligence and investigation are increasing revenue yield by detecting evasion.

National authorities responsible for civil aviation have been strengthened with EU assistance, ranging from senior staff appointments to upgrading air traffic control operations. Statistical offices have been computerised and staff trained and population and household censuses have been organised.

Furthermore, twinning supports and finances the secondment of civil servants from EU member states to work as advisers to beneficiary institutions for a period of at least twelve months, and is running in, among other areas, statistics, internal audit and customs.

Project examples

Most EU assistance to the Western Balkans is provided through the CARDS programme. However, the European Union has a range of tools and mechanisms at its disposal to assist the reform process in the region. These include:

• The European initiative for democracy and human rights (EIDHR)
• Food security
• ECHO humanitarian office

Project examples