Law enforcement in Europe

With Montenegro on board and Bosnia mulling its position, pressure is mounting on Kosovo PM Albin Kurti to reconsider his resistance to joining the Western Balkan 'mini-Schengen'.

Luxembourg – Slovenia did not inform the European Commission of the re-introduction of border checks on EU borders due to the Covid pandemic in the summer of 2020 and the spring of 2021 and the Commission did not check compliance with Schengen rules, the European Court of Auditors has found.

Luxembourg – The EU interior ministers have reached agreement on a negotiating basis to reform the Schengen Borders Code as part of which the rules when a Schengen member state wants to reintroduce internal border controls would be tightened. Slovenian Interior Minister Tatjana Bobnar stressed at Friday’s ministerial that these checks must be temporary.

The summit is attended by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, prime ministers of North Macedonia and Albania, Dimitar Kovacevski and Edi Rama, as well as officials from Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
President Vucic said that he had meetings with representatives of countries that are not yet official members of the Open Balkans.

At the beginning, Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski addressed the audience, greeting all participants gathered, as citizens of the Western Balkans.

Vui said that he was convinced that it was the best initiative in the last few decades. He also mentioned that he does not want to deal with the issue who wants to join or not, and that it is a decision he leaves to others.

Turkey is prepared to submit a report titled "The Abuse of the Schengen System as a Political Sanction by the Member States of the Council of Europe" to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe (PACE) in June.

EUROPOL headquarters in the Hague, Netherlands. Photo: EPA-EFE/JERRY LAMPEN

Milovic said this startling info was presented to the former government at an official meeting but did not name the three officers or their ranks.

Darko Saric, allegedly a major Serbian drugs trafficker, was arrested on Thursday morning at his wife's villa in Belgrade's upmarket suburb of Senjak as part of an international operation coordinated by EUROPOL and EUROJUST, the EU's agencies for law enforcement and criminal justice cooperation.

A statement from the Ministry of the Interior reads that, in addition to ari, 5 other people were arrested, who are suspected of being members of an organized criminal group.