IOM MRF Budapest has published its regional strategy for Central and South-Eastern Europe for the years 2006-2007.

With this strategy document, the IOM Mission with Regional Functions for Central and South-Eastern Europe (MRF Budapest) aims to outline the Organization’s programmatic approach in the Region for the current and the upcoming year, in response to latest migration trends and political and socio-economic developments in the countries under study. Therefore, IOM’s strategy takes into consideration both the recent EU integration of the five Central European countries involved (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia) and the EU membership prospects of the Balkan countries and their need for progressive alignment with the EU migration acquis.

This regional strategy places special emphasis on promoting regional, sub-regional and cross-border cooperation between the countries in Central and South-Eastern Europe. It considers first the overall framework of IOM’s cooperation objectives in the region and its regional policy agenda focusing on the current political, economic and social issues. Following the outline of IOM’s regional strategy, this document takes a closer look at the individual approaches and policies for the 13 countries in the Central and South-Eastern European region.