Support to Western Balkan States in Establishing Advance Passenger Information Systems

Advance Passenger Information (API) systems provide passengers’ biographical data electronically to government authorities in the country of arrival, departure or transit, allowing those authorities to pre-identify who is flying into or out of their territory. Western Balkan countries have been expressing their strong interest in developing national API systems.

The objective of this project is to contribute to enhanced border management and border security in the Western Balkan region by increasing legal and technical capacities towards implementing national API systems. More specifically, the project aims to strengthen capacities of border agencies to design and implement national API systems through the following activities. Firstly, the project brings together representatives of the Western Balkan authorities in a regional workshop, during which best practices and lessons learned will be shared from States who have successfully implemented API systems. Secondly, the existing national legal frameworks and technical capacities related to API will be assessed, in order to identify gaps and needs that need to be addressed at the national level. Finally, each country will develop a national API implementation strategy, based on the findings and recommendations from the country assessment.