Closing Conference of the CoE/EU Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey
The Serbian delegation included representatives of a number of institutions, such as: the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of the Interior, Supreme Court of Cassation, Judicial Academy, Commissionaire for Gender Equality, Centre for the Prevention of Human Trafficking, as well as the representatives of several NGOs engaged in the protection of human rights. The Delegation was headed by Čedomir Backović, Assistant Minister of Justice of the Republic of Serbia.
The Conference was conducted in three sessions:
- Ensuring justice;
- Fighting corruption, economic and organized crime;
- Anti-discrimination and the protection of especially vulnerable groups.
The respective country representatives presented their successfully implemented projects, including actions on improving the conditions in prisons, strengthening judiciary integrity, prevention of corruption and strengthening the activities related to the prevention of human trafficking and promotion of equality and tolerance.
The Conference was closed with a statement that the programme had been successfully implemented in Western Balkan countries, and a recommendation that the next phase of the programme should include an intensified inter-state cooperation to speed up the EU accession of the countries of the region.