The European Commission announced a new support package for the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood. €23 million will be allocated with the aim at helping to improve security, boosting trade and increasing mobility for people living in the region. In addition, this project will provide training, equipment, infrastructure and advice.

A new support package for the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood was approved by the European Commission. Over €23 million will help to improve security, boost trade and increase mobility for people living in the region by implementing border management rules and adopting best practices on the Armenian-Georgian and Ukrainian-Belarus borders in line with EU standards. As part of the Eastern Partnership Flagship Initiative on Integrated Border Management (IBM), this project will, in addition, provide training, equipment, infrastructure and advice; helping to reduce corruption, smuggling and people trafficking in the area and making it safer as a result. In August 2012, the Commission already allocated €22 million to boost projects on the Eastern Neighbourhood.

The Commission also announced that the new funding will also support multilateral activities of the Eastern Partnership; a partnership between the EU and countries on its Eastern borders. The support will be provided for various meetings and seminars of the Eastern Partnership platforms (fora for open discussion and exchange of best practices with partner countries, in line with EU norms and standards) and the Civil Society Forum (bringing together civil society organisations from the Eastern Partnership countries and the EU Member States).

This new support makes up the second part of the 2012 Regional Action Programme for the Eastern Neighbourhood. The Eastern Partnership countries are: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The Eastern Partnership, the Eastern dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy, was launched in 2009 to further support Eastern European countries’ sustainable reform processes with a view to accelerating their political association and economic integration with the European Union.