The annual meeting of the representatives of committees on defense and security of Southeast Europe countries ended

In the building of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina today has ended the annual meeting of the representatives of the committees on defense and security of Southeast Europe countries, which was organized jointly by Joint Committee on Defense and Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Center for Security Cooperation in Southeast Europe (RACVIAC), OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Geneva Center for Civilian Control of Armed Forces (DCAF).

The members of the Joint Committee on Defense and Security of BiH and Parliamentary Military Commissioner participated in the last day of Annual meeting alongside of representatives of institutions of the legislative and executive bodies, dealing with the issues of democratic control of defense and security sectors in the Southeast Europe countries, as well as representatives of international and NGOs in Bosna and Herzegovina dealing with issues in this field. The participants at the panel discussed the security challenges for SEE countries, in particular in the field of countering the problem of illegal migration.

After the first day of the session, the Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina Dragan Mektić and the Minister of the Interior of Montenegro, Mevludin Nuhodžić, presented to the participants the current security challenges of these countries in the region of Southeast Europe, during today's panel representatives of BiH Border Police and Service for Foreigners of BiH also presented their experiences on the security challenges of illegal migrations. The introductory remarks on this issue were given by the Deputy Chairman of the Joint Committee on Defense and Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina Borislav Bojić and the regional coordinator of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for the countries of the Western Balkans, Peter Van der Auweraet.

Representatives of security agencies in BiH presented their models of cross-border cooperation and good practices in combating the illegal migration, as well as on current problems on the borders of the countries of Southeast Europe, and the ways in which these agencies are addressing these problems. In the framework of the discussion on migration issues in the countries of the region, the participants of the Annual Meeting during this panel also discussed co-operation between law enforcement agencies in this field in the form of preparing for timely responses to current security challenges.

The panel discussion was concluded with the presentations by representatives of the Committees on Defense and Security of the South-East Europe countries about the opposing the current security challenges discussed during the two-day period of this Annual Meeting. Concluding the work of this session, RACVIAC Director General Haydar Berk expressed his satisfaction with the views expressed by participants of the three panels during the Annual Meeting, related to the issues of good practices of parliamentary oversight of the defense and security sector, the current security challenges in the region of Southeast Europe, and security challenges in these countries that address issues of illegal migration. (end)