Balkan countries pledge joint fight against crime

TIRANA, April 17 – In an effort to combat organized crime in the region, representatives from several Western Balkan states have pledged to work together on policing and prosecution.
That was decided following a conference of the justice and interior ministers held in Belgrade, Serbia with the participation of from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia.
The Balkan countries planned regional cooperation against organized crime groups.
There were talks on establishing a regional arrest warrant, similar to Europol’s, or creating joint investigation teams to facilitate their exchange of information and evidence.
In recent years, cross-border organized crime has begun displacing domestic criminal groups, OCCRP’s Executive Director Paul Radu explained at a European Parliament conference in April.
“Whenever you have a transnational organized crime group, this group moves very fast,” Radu said. “And for law enforcement it’s hard to keep up with these movements, with these very flexible structures, because the change of information across official networks is sometimes not working very well.”
That is part of the integration efforts that the western Balkan countries are making along their path of integration into the European Union.