On the 10th and 11th of March 2011, the Commissariat for Refugees of the Republic of Serbia in association with the TAIEX Directorate – General Enlargement of the European Commission, organized a workshop on the topic of, “Migration challenges for pre-accession countries in South-East Europe.” The intention of this gathering was to further promote the development of the networks in existence amongst the institutions of the Republic of Serbia concerned with the issues of migration, their international counterparts and other European bodies who are involved in the process of migration management. 

The workshop was attended by over 100 participants representing 15 countries: the government directorate of the Republic of Serbia which is involved in the migration management system, the representatives of the relevant institutions managing migration in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey. Also in attendance were experts from the European Union from the countries of Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden along with the representatives of the embassies of EU and other regional countries. The workshop was also attended by the representatives of the international community residing in Serbia – European Delegation, UNHCR, IOM, UNDP, the OSCE, ICMPD, as well regional initiative MARRI and the representatives of the academic community and civil society of the Republic of Serbia and the region. 

The Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Vladimir Cucic delivered the opening remarks to those in attendance amongst whom were the chief of the political department of the Delegation of the EU to Serbia Mr. Thomas Njoki and the representative of TAIEX Mrs. Marie Mcginley.

The topics of discussion were as follow:

• The legal and institutional framework for the management of migration and the inter- institutional exchange of information.
• Coordination and cooperation with the migration networks of the European Union.
• Prevention of illegal migration.

The experts from the European Union presented their respective national frameworks for migration management as also the European initiatives and organizations dealing with migration, making particular reference to the European Migration Network (the presentation can be downloaded here). The representatives of those countries involved in the EU pre-accession process presented their national frameworks concerning migration and spoke on the topic of prevention of illegal migration within their countries (the presentations of the participating countries and regional actors can be downloaded here).

  

The workshop presented a platform for the successful implementation of regional cooperation within the domain of migration management. The national politics of migration management and best practice were considered upon this occasion and subsequently points around which future cooperation is to be designed were identified while the participants themselves gained a broader understanding of the European initiatives concerning migration.