In March 2004, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued The Strategic Framework for the Neighbourhood Programme. Under the Neighbourhood Programme, 14 major programmes supporting civil society as well as the private and public sectors has been implemented. The Strategy for the second phase of the Neighbourhood Programme was published in August 2007 covering the period 2008-2012.While the overall objective of the Neighbourhood Programme is to promote democratisation in the neighbouring countries, the assitance is implemented within specific focus areas. These are, for example, the strengthening of human rights for vulnerable groups such as refugees and minorities; combating illegal migration; reform and capacity development of the public sector; civil society development; business sector programmes; and the promotion of free and independent media. For further information, reference is made to specific programmes.
Geographically, the Neighbourhood Programme encompasses Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Kosovo, Macedonia (FYROM), Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine. After the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU the 1 January 2007 the support to these countries have been phased out.
The assistance under the Foreign Ministry’s Neighbourhood Programme is primarily carried out through larger programmes. They are planned and implemented together with relevant partners in the Neighbourhood countries, as well as relevant Danish actors. At the same time, the Neighbourhood Programme is flexible in design. Hence smaller and specifically targeted contributions are implemented as well. These are, for example, promotion of free and fair elections in Belarus and Ukraine in 2006, and supporting projects in refugee affected areas in the Western Balkans. Furthermore, the Neighbourhood Programme promotes the Danish institutions’ active participation in EU’s twinning programmes. Advice and economic grants are provided for the Danish participation in EU-Twinning.The Neighbourhood Programme is not open to applications for assistance to individual projects. This is a consequence of the Danish experience with development aid, which shows that aid is more effective when the interventions are provided through larger programmes based on the development plans of the receiving countries themselves. The Neighbourhood Programme is implemented inaccordance with Danida’s Aid Management Guidelines.Denmark's bilateral Neighbourhood Programme should not be mixed up with the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) or the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI), which is the financial instrument for the ENP. The ENPI, which entered into force in January 2007, replaces (together with the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA)) the previous instruments PHARE, CARDS, MEDA, and TACIS. The objective of both the Danish Programme and European Instrument is to promote the democratic development of EU's neighbouring countries, but they are different in size and do not cover exactly the same countries.
