EU4Justice: Support to the Fight against Organised Crime and Corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Since 1^st February 2019, the project team based in Sarajevo, assisted by 28 EU Experts, have been building trust with the project’ beneficiaries in a challenging period for judiciary, so as to enhance the effectiveness, integrity, and professionalism of judges, prosecutors and police investigators in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The EU4Justice project team is fully committed to highlighting the important topics to judiciary in particular with the slant on ethics and integrity.
 

EU4Justice includes 5 areas of operation:

1) Strengthening supervision and control in prosecutors’ offices

2) Strengthening capacities, resources and the independence of the office of the disciplinary council (ODC)

3) Joint training in an interdisciplinary fashion to better respond to organised crime, corruption and the most common forms of commercial crimes (privatisation of companies, tax evasion, tax fraud)

4) Improve current practice and results in forfeiting criminal assets

5) Tracking mechanism improving mutual access to criminal case files by law enforcement agencies, prosecutors’ offices and courts

Dans la lignée de la première phase, Expertise France poursuit son accompagnement afin d’aligner le système judiciaire de la Bosnie-Herzégovine aux normes européennes et se conformer à l'acquis de l'UE par le renforcement de l'État de droit. A cette fin, le projet favorise le partage de méthodes pratiques avec le Haut conseil de la magistrature (HJPC) et les principales institutions du secteur de la justice dans le pays.

Par ces actions, le projet vise ainsi à assurer l'indépendance et le professionnalisme du système judiciaire, de promouvoir les réformes judiciaires et d'améliorer la réponse du pays à la criminalité organisée et à la corruption. Cela passe notamment par :

• une supervision efficace des réformes du secteur de la justice par le HJPC ;
• la formation, la supervision et le conseil du personnel judiciaire en matière d'intégrité ;
• l’amélioration de l'efficacité, la transparence et la sécurité du système judiciaire ;
• le renforcement de l’efficacité du traitement des affaires de crime organisée et de corruption par le système judiciaire.

EU4Justice works with the entire justice chain in criminal matters in BiH with a focus on the exchange of experience with prosecutors and work in peer-to-peer between practitioners of BiH and the EU. This approach enables them to see their national systems through the magnifying glass of other experiences and thus what needs to be worked out become clearer in both legal systems.

Inter-agency cooperation is at the heart of the action as the fight against corruption and organised crime requires diverse and coordinated skills and talents. As it does not know borders, EU4Justice adjusted its actions to ensure that agencies are anchored at the international level. Opening up operational networks, developing mutual trust… so many assets in a long-term struggle against networks operating in several countries with the same attempts on the rule of law, human dignity or the legal economy. A long-term approach is an essential for an efficient and sustainable fight against corruption and organised crime.