Visa liberalisation process directed towards abolishing visas for the Western Balkans citizens wishing to travel to the European Union (EU) has made all the countries in the region cooperate in spite of their war past. Namely, regional cooperation is needed for fulfilment of almost all conditions for visa abolishment, such as migration control, curbing of corruption and organised crime or borders managing.
All this has been emphasised by the Interior Minister Ivica Dacic who has said, "The regional cooperation has emerged as a condition no country can suppose had achieved sufficiently." According to him, political and valuable priority of the Serbian Government are cooperation with neighbours, mutual fight against organised and cross-border crime as well as exchange of experience and mutual direct cooperation and support in fulfilling conditions necessary for the EU joining.
For this process, countries of the region will still have help of the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (FRONTEX), and according to Jan Truscinski, Deputy General Director of the European Commission`s Expansion Directorate, European Commission hopes the region will shortly get absolutely liberal visa regime with the EU.
However, in order to reach this goal, Serbia and its neighbours will have to establish stronger and more operational police cooperation. As the Serbian Police Minister has said, there are initiatives for cooperation strengthening through both bilateral contacts and interstate agreements on cooperation and mutual participation in regional initiatives.
Furthermore, the President of Serbia Boris Tadic has announced that most extensive and most complex fight against organised crime during the past decade will be launched in Serbia with all the national resources engaged.
He has also added that fight would not be meaningful unless the action was organised in neighbouring states as well as that the South East Europe society decriminalisation would not be possible without the support of the EU, its institutions and capacities.
On the other hand, analysts wonder whether the action will really follow after these serious words since "the fight against organised crime where there would be no protected" the authorities in Serbia, as well as in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Montenegro have been promising for years.
While we do not lack promises, the price of cocaine on the streets of Belgrade, Nis and other towns of Serbia is the lowest registered during the past several years, which points to the existence of great quantities of this stuff on the market without bigger problems. Besides, in spite of experts claiming human traffickers have changed the old channels of this crime, the Balkans is still among new routes.
In spite of many objections to results in curbing crime in the region, Theodor Winkler, Director of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), says the countries of the Western Balkans have achieved progress in criminal investigation, intelligence cooperation, logistics improvement, as well as legislature reform.
However, the expert points out that arms smuggling and drugs and human trafficking are still great challenge for all the countries of the region. The interior ministers of Italy and Bulgaria, Roberto Maroni and Mihail Raikov Mikov also confirm this fact. They also add that with their EU partners they will continue helping the fight against organised crime, especially when drugs smuggling via "the Balkan route" is in question.
The DCAF Director says the South East Europe has experienced changes in many spheres including border security cooperation but that there is still more to be done.
"In spite of criminal groups having a lot of money, often even more than the police alone, it has been statistically proved that success has been achieved in the fight against organised crime," says Winkler, warning at the same time that for greater successes work strategy and efficient intelligence exchange among the region states have to be established.
Besides, unlike Croatia, Serbia is still not a member of the Eurojust, an extremely important EU institution headquartered in The Hague, in charge of cooperation of prosecutors and judges in investigation and persecution of criminals hiding in other countries. In this institution, a prosecutor or a judge who fight every day against the toughest forms of organised crime and other forms of crime of exceptional importance represents every member state.
After the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks, in order to prosecute criminals and terrorists more efficiently, the EU Justice Ministers have adopted an Agreement on the European Arrest Warrant that is binding for every judge within the EU and every country is obliged to extradite its citizens so that they could be indicted and tried in other country.
Although in the EU there is still enough space for deepening mutual trust and achievement of complete exchange of criminal records and other important information, the Western Balkans states could use the establishment of similar level of cooperation and speed up joining the institutions such as the Eurojust.
Representatives of this EU institution have recently given the Serbia`s Justice Ministry representatives an agreement proposal that could help Serbia establish permanent cooperation regarding the teamwork of prosecutor offices, police and courts of all the EU countries.
Exchange of information and complete documentation from organised crime trials provided by the Eurojust membership will enable police officers, prosecutors and judges in Serbia to fight more efficiently against criminals that are not limited by nationality, borders and bureaucratic procedures.
* CEV Magazine is an online publication of the Centre for European Values. (Photo: European Communities, 2009)
