Regional EJN Contact Points Meeting was held in Sarajevo from 10 to 11 June 2019. The meeting was intended to the EJN Contact Points in the Western Balkans region, namely from Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo*, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia as well as from the two EU Member States, Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia. The meeting was fully funded by the EU funded Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) 2017 project “Countering Serious Crime in the Western Balkans” implemented by Gesellschaft fűr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Following the successful regional meetings of EJN Contact Points held in Ljubljana in October 2016, in Novi Sad in October 2017 and in Valbaldon in October 2018, this regional meeting was a forth EJN meeting organized in the region. The meeting was devoted to enhance cooperation in the region in matters of Mutual Legal Assistance. The first part of the meeting was dedicated to EJN legal framework, tools and functioning, reporting tool and statistics, presented by the EJN Secretariat. The second part of the meeting focused on practical work of the EJN Contact Points and admissibility of evidence gathered through international judicial cooperation. Contact Points attending the meeitng had also prepared an overview about practical experience as an EJN Contact Point, including presentation of a case. On the second day, use of model forms for MLA requests in different areas, agreed upon at the meeting in Novi Sad, were addressed and discussed. Finally, ways to improve internal and regional function of the EJN was on the agenda. Raising awareness on the EJN in the region was called for, as well as closer links and deepened cooperation in the form of joint trainings and meetings with EJN Contact Points in the EU Member States.
This meeting provided an opportunity to strengthen contacts and relations between EJN Contact Points in the region and to discuss questions related to regional cases and it was highly appreciated by Contact Points attending.
* This designation is without prejudice to the positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.