by Ambassador Janez Premoze, Chairman of the WTIII/Ohrid Border Process

The Ohrid Process for Border Management and Security is a joint effort by the countries of the region, the OSCE, the EU, NATO and the Stability Pact to address the very sensitive issue of borders. Considering the sensitivity of the issue in a region that saw violent conflicts only a few years ago, coming together to discuss the matter itself can already be seen as progress.

But even beyond that, since the Ohrid Conference in May 2003, the whole process overstepped various stages. It has recently entered into the implementation phase, after the presentation of the first Reports from the five countries of the Western Balkans Region at the First Review meeting in November last year. This year, three ad hoc meetings took place. First, a Senior level meeting in March, where all the participants agreed that the priorities were the successful implementation of action-oriented measures, the drafting of reports focused on concrete achievements resulting from the implementation of national strategies and/or of actions taken from the Ohrid commitments, and the improvement of communication and coordination between all the participants by appointing National Contact Points (NCPs). Secondly, an Expert level meeting in April, where the participants agreed on a timeline for the preparation and presentation of semi-annual reports. Thirdly, a meeting of the 4 partners in May in order to prepare the meeting of the Heads of Border Guards/ Services, National Contact Points and the four partners, scheduled for 2 June in Zagreb.

The review process of the Ohrid commitments relies on the implementation of specific measures taken by the countries in order to have concrete achievements on the ground. According to the Way Forward Document, these measures can be divided into two groups: the implementation instruments and the specific action-oriented measures.

As foreseen in the Way Forward Document, the main implementing instrument is the National Strategy for Integrated Border Management (IBM). This strategy is supported by an Action plan for implementation which lists all actions to be taken and by the establishment of the appropriate organisational structures and coordination mechanisms.
According to the intermediate reports on the implementation of the Way Forward Document, which were sent to the Stability Pact, some of them following the agreed deadline (14 May), and others later, the five countries have chosen up to 6 action-oriented measures which are already being implemented, or about to be in the nearest future. The main progress in this field deals with the preparation/ adoption/ implementation of:

Practical implementation of legislative measures and of concrete ones proved to be sometimes uneasy. This should not prevent the assessment of limited progress and stress the need for some rescheduling/redefinition of the implementation scheme in order to address unexpected difficulties while sticking to the initial commitments.

In accordance with the conclusions of the Expert level meeting on 1 April of this year, the 5 countries have appointed their National Contact Point for the Ohrid Process. This procedure has led to a complete list of people, (2 NCPs for Croatia and for SaM) which aims at facilitating coordination and information sharing between the participants of the process. However, there is still a possibility to improve this communication mechanism, in order to make it more efficient. The meeting of the Heads of Border Services/ Guards, with the Ohrid contact points and the partners on 2 June, in Zagreb, will be the occasion to discuss about important issues and take steps further in the process. The main issue will be the discussion between the countries and the partners about the intermediate reports on the implementation of the WFD. This should allow the countries to produce final reports for the first half of October, before the 2nd Review Meeting. Moreover, the European Commission will present IBM guidelines, including a provisional glossary on Border Security and Management vocabulary, which will improve comprehension and accuracy when dealing with border issues. NATO will present an exercise on communication and information sharing procedures. Finally, OSCE will make an overview on training activities with all four partners agreeing on a close coordination in that field..

The Ohrid border process participants also took note that Albania officially agrees to host the 2nd Review Meeting in Tirana next October. This meeting will be the occasion to present further progress ahead of the EU- WB Ministerial Meeting of Justice and Home Affairs in November.