The European Commissioners responsible for Home Affairs and Justice, Ylva Johansson and Didier Reynders, and the relevant Hungarian ministers, Sándor Pintér (Home Affairs) and Bence Tuzson (Justice), met their counterparts from the Western Balkans in Budva, Montenegro, on Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 October.
The European leaders highlighted the progress made over the last five years in improving the fight against organised crime and smugglers, and the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, also took the opportunity to welcome the drop in illegal arrivals from the Western Balkans to the EU, down 77% in one year on this route.
A Joint Declaration was adopted at the end of the ministerial session.
Home Affairs. While Montenegro signed a new cooperation agreement with the European Drugs Agency on 29 October, North Macedonia joined the European Migration Network the day before and Bosnia-Herzegovina is also preparing to sign an association agreement with Frontex “very soon”, as the Commissioner said on Monday 28 October, the Joint Declaration underlines the commitment of both parties to continue to strengthen their cooperation “to counter regional and transnational criminal organised networks involved in illicit trafficking, including migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings, drugs, and firearms trafficking”.
Joint efforts will continue, especially through Europol and the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT).
On the issue of migration, asylum and borders, the EU and the Western Balkan partners “reiterated their joint commitment to address irregular migration, with a view to reinforce the protection of borders and to fight migrant smuggling, in line with the Global Alliance to Counter Migrant Smuggling”. Discussions also focused on “ongoing efforts to set up sustainable asylum and reception systems and to ensure effective returns of migrants with no right to stay, to their countries of origin”.
The EU also “urged Western Balkan partners to further progress towards aligning their visa policy with the EU list of visa-required countries”.
Justice. The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, encouraged the Western Balkan states to accelerate the digitalisation of their judicial systems, highlighting the advances that can be made by artificial intelligence and interoperable solutions, such as compatible judicial databases or case management systems harmonised between EU Member States and partners.
“Digitalisation is essential for the efficiency of the justice system and to ensure that it functions properly”, said Mr Reynders at the closing press conference. It is also seen by the EU as a crucial tool for preparing the region for eventual membership.
The previous day, Mr Reynders had taken part in the signing of a cooperation agreement between Eurojust and Bosnia-Herzegovina, approved on 10 October by the Council of the EU (https://aeur.eu/f/e2h ).
It should secure the transfer of personal data and support cross-border investigations to combat serious crime and terrorism, and enable the authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the EU Member States to speed up criminal investigations and prosecutions by securing the exchange of sensitive information.
Discussions also touched on the war in Ukraine and the strengthening of sanctions: “To date, €27.6 billion of private Russian assets have been frozen in the EU”, the Commissioner also pointed out.
Link to the Joint Statement: https://aeur.eu/f/e2e (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Nithya Paquiry)