Integrative Internal Security Governance (IISG) Board has endorsed functional merger with the RCC as of April 2020

Skopje – “We will be bigger. As of next year the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) will coordinate one of the most important agendas of the region: security. Security threats do not need any visa or border checks”, said the RCC's Secretary General, Majlinda Bregu after today’s 4th meeting of the Integrative Internal Security Governance (IISG) Board, held in Skopje, at which functional merger of IISG with RCC as of April 2020 was endorsed.  

“In today’s complex and interdependent security challenges within and across border, a regional approach can effectively provide common responses ensuring full respect for human rights and the rule of law to the security sector”, added Bregu. 

The IISG merger with the RCC will contribute to more coherence in security cooperation activities of the region. It will fully complement the Berlin Process’s security component and help the region to better cope with accession requirements around Justice and Home Affairs nexus. 

The IISG is a new approach to internal security governance capacity-building and reform introduced in the Western Balkan region. The concept enables a coordinated, aligned and sustainable effort in the major fields of internal security governance reform on part of the EU and all relevant international donors of external assistance. The IISG was endorsed by the Council of the EU in late 2016, and officially launched by the ministers of interior/security of the Western Balkans in September 2017.

The IISG Board meeting took place back-to-back with the meeting of Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs from EU and Western Balkans in Skopje. Members of the IISG Board are the Ministers of Interior of the Western Balkan economies, EU Prevention and Countering Violent Extremism/Counter-Terrorism (PCVE/CT) Coordinator, the European Commission (EC) and the European External Action Service (EEAS). In the future, as decided in Skopje today, any EU Justice and Home Affairs agency can be invited to join the IISG Board upon notification to the Board.