The 42th Governing Board of the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR), was held on Thursday, 12 June and Friday, 13 June 2008. The meeting took place in Pristina, Kosovo, where the Agency started its reconstruction work on behalf of the EU in 1999, in the immediate aftermath of the conflict. In December 2008, the EAR will officially close its doors as its mandate is coming to an end. But the Agency has already started to hand over the EU assistance programmes to the European Commission delegations in the Balkans. 12 June 2008

Four operation centres in Belgrade, Skopje, Pristina and Podgorica have allowed the agency to establish a more local and accessible presence in its areas of operation. Besides that, the centres permit the agency to monitor its projects and programmes in their respective locations, providing at the same time updates and key information to target audiences that include the media, journalists, non-governmental organisations, government counterparts and direct beneficiaries.

Initially set up to provide emergency reconstruction and stabilisation aid in Kosovo, over the last eight years the Agency has managed throughout the region some €2.9 billion on behalf of the European Commission. The Agency’s responsibilities have likewise expanded from post-conflict reconstruction in war-ravaged Kosovo to helping other Balkan countries implementing economic and political reforms which bring them closer to Europe.

‘Kosovo is where it all started’ says Adriano Martins. ‘It was here in Pristina, that the Agency began its work. Now we are gradually handing over our operations, starting from Kosovo. This is why we chose to hold our Governing Board in Pristina, to symbolically reaffirm our initial commitment to Kosovo and the Western Balkans’. Martins heads the European Agency for Reconstruction which manages major EU assistance programmes to Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia since 2000. ‘The EAR has demonstrated its ability to enhance EU response in post-conflict situations’ explains Mr Martins.