Brussels, 06/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - After the meeting last Thursday of the Justice and Home Affairs ministers of the 25 (plus Romania, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia-Montenegro); the Dutch Presidency has published a statement in which it welcomes the progress these countries have made, whilst calling upon them to make more consistent efforts. The Balkan countries have accomplished "significant progress since last year's meeting in fighting organised crime and managing borders, both in terms of legislation and the identification of appropriate structure for police and prosecution", reads the press release, which continues: "However, [the Presidency] has noted that a number of key deadlines had not been met and that further efforts were needed to build the necessary operational capacities and to ensure effective interservice cooperation". The ministers discussed the fight against organised crime, conditions for possible EU involvement in a centre to fight cross-border crime in Bucharest (SECI), legal and police cooperation with Eurojust and Europol, and border surveillance.