01/10/2024
The Ministry of Justice, the President of the High Judicial Power and the State Prosecutor General of Bosnia and Herzegovina visit their counterpart institutions in Spain with the aim of improving judicial cooperation against organised crime
Minister Bolaños with his Bosnian counterpart Davor Bunoza.
This morning, the Spanish Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, received his Bosnian counterpart. In parallel, the President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (equivalent to our General Council of the Judiciary) and the Bosnian Prosecutor General had the opportunity to meet with representatives of both counterpart institutions in Madrid with the aim of exchanging knowledge and experiences with the Spanish judicial sector in judicial matters against organised crime.
As a candidate for accession to the European Union (EU), Bosnia and Herzegovina must conform to EU justice standards, as set out in several of the 14 key priorities for accession and reflected in the European Commission’s 2018 Western Balkans Strategy.
To achieve this accession, Bosnia is working hand in hand with France, Spain and Germany through the European project EU4Justice, which aims to help the institutions of the judicial sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina to implement the necessary changes to adapt the functioning of the judiciary to EU rule of law standards and acquis, while also improving the professionalisation, efficiency and transparency of its judicial system.
Thanks to this visit, they will have the opportunity to learn first-hand about the processes followed by their counterparts in Spain for the supervision of the judicial sector, the continuous improvement of efficiency and transparency, and the effective fight against organised crime.
During this visit, two agreements of understanding will be signed between the Ministries of Justice and between the prosecutors’ offices of both countries with the aim of creating a stable relationship and direct communication to cooperate against transnational organised crime, taking into account the domestic legislation of each State and the international commitments acquired through the signing and ratification of international legal instruments.
This will allow both parties to further explore the possibility of cooperation and improve international judicial assistance in the fight against organised crime, in particular terrorism, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, illicit trade in human organs and tissues, trafficking in human beings, smuggling of migrants, cybercrime, fraud, money laundering.
The second phase of the EU4JUSTICE project ‘Supporting Judicial Professionalism and the Fight against Organised Crime and Corruption in BiH’ is funded by the European Union through a special measure of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) and implemented by Expertise France (EF) in partnership with FIIAPP and the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ). The overall objective of the project is to further align Bosnia and Herzegovina’s justice system with European standards and its judicial acquis.
