Boosting Border Security in South-Eastern Europe: New EU and UNODC Initiative Gets Under Way with Joint Scoping Missions  

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November 2024 – January 2025, South-Eastern Europe: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has recently completed a series of scoping missions to various land border crossings, air and seaports in South-Eastern Europe.

The missions served as a basis for rolling out the new European Union-UNODC Joint Action “Promoting Rule of Law and Good Governance through Targeted Border Control Measures at Ports and Airports in South-Eastern Europe – Phase II”, which commenced in 2024 and is now well under way.

 “We highly value the cooperation with our counterparts in participating jurisdictions in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, who conducted these missions together with us”, said Mr. Batyr Geldiyev, UNODC’s Regional Coordinator for the new project. “These missions will facilitate the development of joint technical needs reports with recommendations for efficient implementation of planned activities and practical steps for the establishment of new interagency units in the region”, he added.

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The joint missions offered an opportunity to monitor the operation of existing inter-agency units and assess the feasibility of new ones in key locations. From 4-6 November 2024, an international expert operating under the guidance of staff from UNODC’s Passenger and Cargo Control Programme, visited airports in Skopje and Ohrid in North Macedonia.

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From 11-14 November 2024, the team travelled to Kukes and Tirana airports in Albania, followed by visits to airports in Podgorica and Tivat, as well as the Bar seaport in Montenegro from 25-28 November 2024.

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The mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 9-10 December 2024 included a visit to Sarajevo’s airport. From 16-20 December 2024, the team was in Serbia to visit airports in Nis and Belgrade.

The joint scoping exercise continued in Bosnia and Herzegovina with visits to land border crossings in Gradiška from 21-23 January 2025 and Bijača in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 27-28 January 2025.

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The assessments concluded with a mission to Pristina’s airport and Vermice, Kosovo, from 28 – 30 January 2025.

The missions included a series of high-level meetings with key national stakeholders, including Customs, Police, Passenger Information Units, Civil Aviation authorities as well as representatives from the European Union Delegations and international organizations in South-Eastern Europe, to discuss border management challenges, institutional capacities, and opportunities for cooperation under the European Union-UNODC Joint Action

The meetings reaffirmed the strong commitment of national authorities to support Phase II of the European Union – UNODC Joint Action, which will run until 2027.

The objective of the project is to enhance the capacities of authorities in South-Eastern Europe to fight organized crime, by supporting more effective and coordinated responses to illicit trafficking by border law enforcement at land and port border crossing points and international airports in the region.

The European Union – UNODC Joint Action is implemented by the UNODC Passenger and Cargo Control Programme (PCCP) in close cooperation with UNODC Regional Office for South-Eastern Europe (ROSEE).

 

*All references to Kosovo should be understood in the context of the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999).

 

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