1st Coordination Conference of South-East European Initiatives on Justice and Home Affairs PDF Print E-mail
Regional Cooperation Council

The 1st Coordination Conference of South-East European (SEE) Initiatives on Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) and their international partners was organized by the newly established Regional Cooperation Council's (RCC) Secretariat on September 15 - 16, 2008, in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The event was envisaged as a forum for strengthening the coordination between the regional initiatives and international organizations acting in SEE on the implementation of JHA projects and reforms.

In his opening words, RCC Secretary General Mr. Hido Biscevic presented the mission of the new organization in setting up bridge between EU and countries of the region in five priority areas: Justice and Home Affairs, Economic and Social Development, Infrastructure and Energy, Security Cooperation and Building Human Capital and Cross-cutting Issues.

The first session of the event was dedicated to the current status of the regional initiatives. The representatives of the Regional Anti-corruption Initiative (RAI), the Migration, Asylum, Refugees Regional Initiative (MARRI), the South East Europe Cooperative Initiative Regional Center for Combating Trans-border Crime (SECI Center), the Secretariat of the South East Europe Police Cooperation Convention (PCC Secretariat), the South East European Prosecutors Advisory Group (SEPAG) and the South East Europe Police Chiefs Association (SEPCA) presented the structure and the activity of each initiative and discussed the necessary steps to be taken in order to improve the coordination and cooperation process in their work. RAI was represented by Ms. Vesna Ratkovic - Chairperson, Mr. Edmond Dunga - Head of the Secretariat, Mr. Stanislav Aleksandrov - Anti-corrution Expert and Mr. Dusan Drakic - Advisor in Montenegrin Directorate for Anti-Corruption Initiative (DACI).

During the second session of the meeting the initiatives and the international organizations tried to identify common points of interest in order to combine and make efficient their efforts on JHA field avoiding overlapping or unnecessary competition.

Among the main conclusions of the forum were:

  • JHA regional initiatives and RCC should continue to work on improving cooperation and coordination of activities;
  • RCC will support the initiatives and will assist the implementation of joint regional projects;
  • The Coordination Conference will be developed to an annual event, etc.

Recognizing EU membership as a priority for all the countries in SEE, the participants agreed on the fact that establishing efficient cooperation mechanisms in the region would show they could work inside EU as well.

In the framework of the 1st Coordination Conference RAI Secretariat staff had a meeting with Ms. Carla Ciavarella - UNODC Regional Programme Coordinator. It was stated that the cooperation between RAI and UNODC had reached a satisfactory level. The discussion was focused on the future cooperation between the two organizations, in particular the possibility of signing of MoU, the mutual application and implementation of regional projects, common activities in marking the International Anti-corruption Day, etc.

Please, find attached the agenda, the list of participants and the conclusions of the 1st Coordination Meeting of SEE initiatives.

Agenda Day 1
Agenda Day 2
List of participants
Conclusions

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
September 16, 2008