Commission strengthens security cooperation with Western Balkans

On 30 October, Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner signed a new Joint Action Plan on Preventing and Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism between the EU and its Western Balkan partners, in the margins of the EU-Western Balkans Ministerial Forum on Justice and Home Affairs in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

With this new Action Plan, the EU and its Western Balkan partners will be better equipped to address new and emerging threats, including online radicalisation, as well as the impact of new technologies on terrorist threats, such as risks associated to the misuse of drones, or the use of cryptocurrencies for terrorism financing.

The Action Plan will strengthen cooperation and capacity-building in five main areas:

• alignment with EU counterterrorism legislation,
• preventing extremism,
• strengthening cooperation with Europol (including on counter-terrorism investigations),
• reinforcing the capacity to investigate terrorism financing,
• strengthening the protection of critical infrastructure and public spaces.

The Action Plan was announced in the ProtectEU, EU’s Internal Security Strategy in April 2025. It builds on the cooperation, which is taking place since October 2018 under the current Joint Action Plan on Counter Terrorism for the Western Balkans. This includes the participation of Western Balkans partners in the Knowledge Hub on Prevention of Radicalisation and in operational projects led by Europol. The Action Plan also plays a key role in the gradual integration of candidate countries into the EU’s security architecture, as well as in the context of the Enlargement process.