TIRANA, March 20 – Albania’s foreign and interior ministers took part at a meeting of ten central and southern European nations held in Vienna last week to talk on how to cooperate more closely in the fight against terrorism.
The meeting agreed that a “comprehensive strategy that goes beyond common law” is needed to tackle extremism.
The conference had representatives from the EU, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
More concrete cooperative measures will include better training of border authorities to prevent the entry and exit of extremists, along with an intensification of cooperation among Europol, the EU counter-terrorism coordinator, EU border authority Frontex and Western Balkans countries.
It was agreed that it was of the “highest priority” that all states report information on jihadists to Europol as soon as possible.
The problem of jihadism can only be solved through closer cooperation of European states, and that will take time, they said.
