Strategy for integrated border management

system of external EU borders management is under development, consisting of
rules, best practices and recommendations, and offers ways of solving operational
requirements. The last enlargement of the EU moved external borders of the Union
to the borders in the region of Western Balkans, so that all countries in the region,
except for Bosnia and Herzegovina, are directly facing their neighbours who apply
rules of the Union on movement of goods and persons.
4.1. EU and Western Balkans
Actual situation in the Western Balkan requires a specific approach to integrated
border management, mostly relying on coordination and co-operation among all
relevant services and agencies involved in border control, facilitation of trade and cooperation
in border regions in order to build efficient, effective, and integrated border
management systems, aimed at realizing a common task of creating open but
controlled and safe borders.
The document upon which the concept of integrated border management for the
Western Balkan is based is "The Regional CARDS Programme for Western Balkan –
Multi-Year Indicative Programme 2002-2006 (MIP)". According to the document,
western Balkan states in general have no comprehensive approach to border
management, which inevitably brings about poor results. As the problems are so
interrelated that they cannot be solved efficiently if separated, an encompassing
approach to border management presents a unique solution, and therefore:
• The neighbouring countries must improve their co-operation in the field of
common border management;
• The border services must co-operate to a larger extent so that border
crossings become more open in terms of flow of trade and persons, and at
the same time more functional in suppressing trans-border crime;
• Problems of border management can be resolved not only by actions at
borders, but activities on the level of the whole country have to be involved.
Border management implies activities on the level of the whole country,
where the role of central authorities is of special import.
Three basic elements are distinguished in this relation:
• Facilitation of trade
• Control of borders
• Co-operation of bordering regions
4.2. Three pillars of the European concept of integrated border management
Integrated border management is to be viewed as a large package of activities aimed
at solving the strategic and practical challenges in border management, not as
independent modules having no effect-cause relation one to another. The main
fulcrum for an integrated border management in western Balkan are:
• Intra-service Co-operation
• Inter-agency Co-operation
• International co-operation
Intra-service Co-operation is a co-operation inside ministries and services
authorised for certain duties. Co-operation within services has two aspects. The
vertical co-operation consists of co-operation at different administrative levels, from a
ministry to the units working at the border. The horizontal co-operation within