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European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR)
News article1 December 2021Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

Commissioners Reynders and Johansson taking part in Western Balkans Ministerial Forum on Justice and Home Affairs on 2-3 December

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Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, and Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, will take part in the EU – Western Balkans Ministerial Forum on Justice and Home Affairs tomorrow and on Friday in Brdo, Slovenia. Hosted by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council, the meeting will gather Justice and Home Affairs Ministers from the Western Balkans. Representatives of EU Justice and Home Affairs Agencies will also attend. Tomorrow morning, Commissioner Johansson will join Home Affairs ministers to discuss migration management, including cooperation to reinforce border management capacity and information exchange, enhancing reception conditions and asylum systems, and strengthening cooperation against migrant smuggling and on return and readmission. In a second session, participants will exchange on countering terrorism, extremism and radicalisation, with discussions expected to focus on the implementation of the Joint Action Plan on counter-terrorism, the return of foreign terrorist fighters to the Western Balkan region, as well as the situation of evacuated Afghan citizens in transit in the region. Participants will also discuss enhancing cooperation the fight against organised crime. Commissioner Johansson will take part in a press conference scheduled around 13:00 CET tomorrow. It will be broadcast live on EbS. On Friday, Commissioner Reynders will join Justice Ministers to present the latest developments regarding the European Rule of Law Mechanism and progress made in the implementation of two EU-funded projects for the measurement of the performance of the justice systems, including of the Western Balkans partners. Commissioner Reynders will also present the state of play of operations of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) and call upon the Western Balkan partners' cooperation with the EPPO. Commissioner Reynders will then address Ministers on the need to further enhance judicial training. In his last intervention, Commissioner Reynders will update Ministers on the state of play of the implementation of EU-wide measures for the digitalisation of the justice systems of the Member States. Commissioner Reynders will take part in a press conference on Friday scheduled around 12.45 CET. It will be broadcasted live on EbS. A press statement will be issued at the end of the meeting.

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