On October 26 – 27^th Sofia hosted the annual EU–Western Balkans justice and home affairs ministerial meeting. The event came as part of the Estonian EU presidency and representatives of Austria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro participated in it. The subject through the first day of the forum was related to the reforming of the Western Balkan countries’ systems of justice. EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Mrs. Věra Jourová and Ministers of Justice of Estonia and Bulgaria Mr. Urmas Reinsalu and Mrs. Tsetska Tsacheva took part in the talks. In his speech Mr. Reinsalu outlined the achievements of the Western Balkan’s states, but declared that more work was necessary:

“There are still great gaps in terms of justice effectiveness between the countries of the Western Balkans, but they agreed to work with the EC, in order to develop a bunch of indicators that should monitor the presenting of the justice systems in the beginning of 2018. The second thing is the development of e-justice, which will contribute to the random assignment of cases to judges – one of the basic principles of an independent system of justice.”

The representatives of the Western Balkans are unanimous that better cooperation is necessary between them and the EU in the sphere of the criminal and civil law issues, as well as for personal data protection.

EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Mrs. Věra Jourová accentuated on the judicial reform in Bulgaria, expressing her concerns that the progress data, received during her meetings with Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov and the actual facts and results showed discrepancies, causing suspicions on the effectiveness of the prosecution office. In her words we can’t expect a less objective or more positive monitoring report due to the presidency. She added that the dropping of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism depended on the Bulgarian progress in the fight with corruption and effective justice.

Bulgaria should structure the office of the European prosecutor during the EU presidency. The latter’s task will be to control the spending of the EU funding. According to Minister Tsacheva the new structure should start its work by 2021.

The second day of the meeting was devoted to the challenges for the EU security and also to the coping with outside threats such as terrorism and Middle East migrants. The Interior Ministers of Estonia and Bulgaria Mr. Andres Anvelt and Mr. Valentin Radev participated, alongside EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos. As Mr. Anvelt said:

“We face several challenges: the fight with illegal migration, terrorism and radicalization, as well as with organized crime. The fight with migrant trafficking is a priority to the EU, but many tend to still use the refugee route through the Western Balkans. We need to have a common information exchange system, in order to stop them. This will stimulate and improve the cooperation between the security agencies of the EU and the Western Balkans.”

Minister Radev declared that Bulgaria coped with the guard of the union’s external border, but added that it would be easier if our Western neighbors become part of the European family.

According to EU Commissioner Avramopoulos, a common European system for travels and their permitting will support the fight with illegal migration. This system won’t be a visa regime, but will offer an easier access of Western Balkans’ citizens to the EU.

Meetings of that kind are very useful for Bulgaria, especially in regard with the forthcoming EU presidency over the first six months of 2018.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev