Operational meetings between Montenegro and Albania

Under the framework of the project Countering Serious Crime in the Western Balkans – IPA 2019 an operational meeting between Montenegrin Police and Special State Prosecutor and Albanian Police and Montenegrin Special State Prosecutor was held mid of January. The main objective addressed migrant smuggling and dismantling criminal groups. The importance of the two-days operational meetings is multi-layered for the future collaboration between two polices and two prosecutions: establishing of direct communication channels between the two countries regarding the suspicious members of criminal group and targeting possible investigations in the later step.

For both Montenegro and Albania this is a valuable opportunity in enhancing the collaboration between the two countries to fight organized crime, strengthening border security and migration management – which are of high priority for the respective countries and also in the enlargement perspective for EU engagement with the Western Balkans.