Members of the project team “Strengthening the Capacity of Investigation and Prosecution in the Western Balkan Countries” attending the conference in Banja Luka

Representative of the Association for Democratic Initiatives (ADI) Sarajevo, partners of Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) and Transparency Serbia from Belgrade, within the project “Strengthening the Capacity of Investigation and Prosecution in the Western Balkan Countries- Financial Investigations as a Tool for fighting Organized Crime and Corruption”, attended the two-day conference “Judiciary – the current state and perspective with an emphases on fighting corruption and organized crime”.

The conference was organized by the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (VSTV BiH), in cooperation with the Office of the European Union Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUSR) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The conference was organized on the first and second of February 2018. in Banja Luka.

This is the third annual conference on the reform of the judicial system organized by VSTV BiH in cooperation with EUSR and USAID.

The aim of the conference was to continue the practice of developing a dialogue on the ongoing judicial reform process, with a focus on fighting corruption and organized crime.

At the mentioned conference, the key topics were, among other things, the efficiency and quality of the Work of the courts and the Prosecutor Office as the process of corruption and organized crime, with special emphasis on the cooperation of the prosecution with law enforcement agencies, which are the main components of the project “Strengthening the Capacity of  the Investigation and Criminal Prosecutions in the Western Balkan countries – Financial Investigations as a Tool for fighting Organized Crime and Corruption”.

In addition to these activities, special attention has been devoted to the assessment of existing legislation and practice of conducting financial investigations in the countries of the region, the organization of education and capacity building programs for prosecutors, judges and law enforcement officials and the promotion of national and regional cooperation in conducting financial investigations with special emphasis on the exchange of experience between courts, Prosecutors offices and police from Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in the process of EU accession negotiations in Chapters 23 and 24.