Commissioners Avramopoulos and Jourová at the EU-Western Balkans Forum on Justice and Home Affairs in Tirana, Albania

On Thursday and Friday, Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos and Commissioner for Justice, Gender Equality and Consumers, Vĕra Jourová will participate in the EU-Western Balkans Ministerial Forum on Justice and Home Affairs in Tirana, Albania. On Thursday, Commissioner Jourová will discuss with Justice Ministers how to strengthen the rule of law through the promotion of standards for the judiciary. They will also exchange views on the indicators necessary to assess the progress of justice reforms. The Commissioner will then make a statement on media freedom on behalf of the European Commission. A press conference with the Albanian and Austrian Federal Justice Ministers will follow at around 18:15 local time. On Friday, Commissioner Avramopoulos will join Home Affairs Ministers to discuss current challenges related to migration and border management as well as to security, in particular police cooperation and countering terrorism and violent extremism. Commissioner Avramopoulos will then sign the agreement on cooperation between Albania and European Border and Coast Guard and the Joint EU–Western Balkans Action Plan on Counter-Terrorism. He will also participate at the initialling of working arrangements for cooperation between the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction EMCDDA and Albania. A press conference with Commissioner Avramopoulos, Albanian and Austrian Federal Home Affairs Ministers will follow the meeting and will be available on EbS