Conference of Justice Ministers of the Western Balkan Countries



15.04.2011. - Deputy Minister of Justice, Mr. Srđan Arnaut, took part at the Conference of Justice Ministers of the Western Balkan Countries, which was held in Brdo pri Kranju. The aim of the Conference was strengthening the fight against organized crime, with special emphasis on the confiscation of proceeds of crime.

Having in mind that strengthening of regional and international judicial cooperation is the key element in the fight against organized and economic crime, it was concluded that it is especially important to intensify cooperation in the area of financial investigations, tracing, freezing and confiscating the proceeds of crime.

Participants exchanged experiences on different systems of confiscation of the proceeds of crime and confirmed their commitment to consider introduction of broader possibilities of confiscation, such as extended confiscation and non-conviction based confiscation.

Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia gave initiative at the Conference to establish mechanism of Regional Arrest Warrant, which would be made according to the model and the basic principles of the European Arrest Warrant.

Besides the Ministers of Justice and representatives of the Ministries of Justice of the Western Balkan countries, at the Conference were also present Mr. Eric Holder, Minister of Justice of the United States of America and Mr. Tibor Navračić, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Hungary, as the presiding country over the European Union.