The EU delegation in Kosovo announced on Thursday 2 November that the centralised national register of criminal offences has been officially launched.
The project, which was launched by the EU Bureau in Kosovo and the country's Judicial Council, has €1.8 million and will last for 36 months (in other words until 2020).
The project "is to set up the legal, administrative, and IT resources for a functioning NCCR (National Centralised Criminal Records Registry) at a central level and at the level of the courts, in order to ensure issuance of reliable conviction certificates in line with international standards", the website for the project states. Furthermore, the project will also enable the digitalisation of old criminal records in Kosovo (since 1999).
In concrete terms, the project has five key areas: - legal and administrative reforms, and capacity-building; - setting up a functional NCCR registry; - support to the procurement of a supply contract; - digitalisation of old conviction records; - and an independent mid-term review and exit strategy (from the project).
In addition to the Kosovo Judicial Council, the institutions benefiting from this project are the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, the Ministry of Justice, the Kosovo Police and the Civil Registration Agency. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)