For candidate countries (Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey) and potential candidates (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo), the EU provides both financial and technical support. The aim of this support is to help the beneficiaries make political and economic reforms and to help them meet the obligations necessary for membership of the EU.

This is done primarily through the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA).

The IPA funds are a sound investment into the future of both the enlargement countries and the EU itself. The investments already made in these countries as well those to come over the next few years, have gone and will go also to projects such as integrated border management (IBM), reception centres for asylum seekers and refugees and support to help counter the trafficking of human beings.

For the period 2007-2013 IPA had a budget of €11.5 billion; its successor, IPA II, will build on the results already achieved by dedicating €11.7 billion for the period 2014-2020. Pre-accession support for migration–related activities in the Western Balkans and Turkey since 2007, amounts to over €600 million.

Serbia

Overall pre-accession support for migration-related activities (both past and planned) in Serbia is € 54 million

Since 2007, €45.6 million have been committed for Serbia in the area of home affairs. The assistance concentrates on the technological upgrade of equipment at border posts and infrastructures; upgrade and extension of asylum facilities; drafting of the new law on asylum and reform of the national asylum system. Within this amount, a total of €13 million has been earmarked under IPA II for the construction of the ‘Common Crossing Points’ (Mucibabe, Jarinje, Konculj).

The EU Delegation to Serbia is currently providing €240 000 from IPA II for additional needs, such as waste disposal, water and sanitation and other needs to be identified in cooperation with the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy as well as the Commissariat for Refugees.

In addition to this money, the EU will continue supporting the reform of Serbia’s asylum system in the medium and long-term. Some €8.2 million have already been set aside from IPA funds for Serbia for projects, which are either being implemented or will start within the next year:

  • €3.2 million will be used to expand existing accommodation capacities for migrants in Serbia;
  • an EU twinning project of €1 million is already ongoing with a focus on drafting a new law on asylum and stepping up the reform of the asylum system;
  • €4 million have been allocated to further develop Serbia’s border surveillance systems.

For the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia overall pre-accession support for migration-related activities (both past and planned) is €24 million, for Bosnia & Herzegovina,  €16.8, Montenegro, €22.6 million, Kosovo,  €7.1 million and Turkey, €469 million

Humanitarian funding for refugees and asylum seekers

On 26 of August 2015 the European Commission allocated €1.5 million in humanitarian funding to assist refugees and migrants in Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The aid will support humanitarian partners in helping with the provision of basic emergency services such as drinking water, hygiene, health care, shelter, and protection to refugees and migrants, improvement of the reception centres, and coordination and reporting on migration issues in the region.

Recently the European Commission allocated €90 000 in EU humanitarian assistance to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (on July 31, 2015) and €150 000 to Serbia (on August 20, 2015) in response to this emergency situation. The funding was channelled through the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and went directly to the two national Red Cross Societies of the two countries. With the new funding, overall EU humanitarian aid to support vulnerable refugees and migrants in Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia amounts to €1.74 million.