Balkan Asset Management Interagency Network (BAMIN) held the annual general meeting on the 26^th and 27^th of June and was hosted by the 2018 BAMIN Presidency, Macedonia Agency for Management of Seized and Confiscated Property, with technical support from the European Union funded Project “Further Support to Kosovo Institutions in the Fight Against Organised Crime, corruption and violent Extremism” (OCC-CVE) in Kosovo.

Around 70 asset recovery practitioners from Asset Management Offices, law enforcement, prosecution authorities and court services attended from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

Mr. Oliver Ristovski, Deputy Minister of Justice, Macedonia opened the meeting and provided a welcome address. The meeting was Chaired by Mr. Faton ASANI, Director Agency for Management of Seized and Confiscated Property, Macedonia.

In addition, experts were provided with presentations from international experts from Europol, Bulgaria, Ireland and Netherlands, on the most topical Asset Recovery Developments and the Challenges in establishing an effective Asset Management Office.

The main conclusions from the meeting were:

• The outcomes and recommendations from all three workshops will be compiled into one report and disseminated to all BAMIN Members, meeting participants, the ARIN Secretariats, the EU ARO Platform and its AMO sub-working Group. It will also be disseminated to any other body or agency suggested by the BAMIN Steering Group.
• Relevant judgements discussed during the meeting to be translated (if funding available) into Serbian and Albanian, circulated to BAMIN members and placed on the BAMIN website, specifically the Irish case of illegal assets starting up a company which goes onto generate alleged ‘legal’ assets.
• All judgements relating to asset management decisions discussed during the meeting will be translated into Serbian and Albanian, circulated to BAMIN members and placed on the BAMIN website.
• ECHR judgements on the pre-judgement sale of assets will be analysed in order to highlight that this practice is in line with European human rights. The outcome of this analysis will be circulated to all BAMIN members and placed on the BAMIN website.