HAPE PROGRAM - Home Affairs Program of EU in Kosovo
Home Affairs Programme of European Union in Kosovo* (HAPE), as is known by its acronym, is an EU-funded strategic, institutional and technical assistance project conceived to support and assist the Kosovo Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) in the implementation of the Rule of Law (RoL) Strategy and reforms in the area of Home Affairs through its key Kosovo lawenforcement agencies (LEAs), in particular, Kosovo Police (KP), Police Inspectorate of Kosovo (PIK), Kosovo Academy for Public Safety (KAPS), Kosovo Forensic Agency (KFA)
as well as the Special Prosecution Office of the Republic of Kosovo (SPRK), in achieving their objectives and bringing their performance in the fight against serious organized crime (SOC), corruption and terrorism and seizure and confiscation of assets in convergence to EU acquis standards envisaged in Chapter 24.
The Grant Contract No. IPA/2022/441510, for the implementation of HAPE project, was awarded by the European Union Office in Kosovo (EUOK) to the Ministry of Interior (MoI) of the Republic of Italy (Central directorate of criminal Police), as the lead partner of a consortium made up of the MoI of the Republic of France (Directorate for international cooperation of Security) with CIVIPOL and the Belgian Federal Police of the Kingdom of Belgium as junior partners of the project. The project started the inception phase of the implementation on the 1st of March 2023 and is expected to last for 40 months.
*This designation is without prejudice to the statutory positions and is consistent with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999) and the opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Kosovo’s declaration of independence.
Summary of the action
Overall objective/Impact
To enhance the alignment of Kosovo Home Affairs sectors to the European standards and best practices and to improve the promotion of RoL and fundamental rights in Kosovo.
Approach
The project is designed as a capacity building/development action in support of Kosovo MIA and SPRK, in particular, it will support the internal reforms of MIA and the capacities of the Kosovo LEAs in implementing the measures identified in the RoL Strategy, strategies in the area of Home Affairs, findings of EU progress reports and findings of EU peer-review assessment missions by enhancing the interaction in between with the LEAs and SPRK. The project will also provide customized equipment for the KP in coherence with the overall goal of this project.
The specific objectives
- Objective 1 : Strengthened capacities and improving performance of MIA and its dependant institutions to align effectively with the EU acquis (Chapter 24)
- Outcome 2: Strengthened investigative and operational capacities of the Kosovo Police and Kosovo Academy of Public Safety in the fight against organized crime, corruption, terrorism, cyber-security, forensic, border management and migration.
Key components
- Component 1: Strategic and Institutional support to the MIA. Strategic support: MIA and KP legal and institutional reform developed in line with EU Acquis and best standards. The project will support institutional reorganization and strategic harmonization within the MIA structures, ensure clear competences and responsibilities, improve MIA capacities to monitor and evaluate strategies, oversight and coordinate different dependent institutions. Any progress under this result will positively affect the investigative and operational capacities of Kosovo LEAs under the component 2.
- Component 2: Strengthening of the investigations and operational capacities of the LEAs in SOC corruption, terrorism, seizure and confiscation of assets and boarder management and migration.
Operational support : The action will support the strengthening of the investigation and operational capacities (including procurement of customized equipment) of LEAs, develop Joint Strategic Assessment (JSA) between KP and SPRK, identifying joint high value targets for investigation and prosecution, improve intelligence-led policing and risk analysis in the areas of SOC, corruption, financial crimes, money laundering, confiscation of criminal assets, terrorism, forensic, border management and migration.
The project will seek synergies with other ongoing international initiatives. It will also enhance Joint investigation Teams (JIT) and cross-border (c-b) investigations with EUMS and agencies, provide operational support in real c-b or international investigations, ensure effective cooperation of the KP investigators on the domestic and international level with EU agencies, etc. In addition to that, the action will also improve capacities of MIA and KP in cyber-security and cyber-crime, by developing standard operating procedures (SoPs) and guidelines, feasibility study for a pilot project on EU unified emergency number 112 in Pristina.
Stakeholders :
MIA, KP, SPRK, PIK, KAPS and KFA
Key activities :
Diagnosis, workshops, joint research groups, roundtables, peer to peer sessions, trainings (including on the job), coaching, strategic and legal advice, institutional and legislative support, mentoring, reviews/assessments, support in actual investigations, JITs, training of trainers (ToTs) programs, on the job training, study visits, case monitoring, reports etc.
The project in figures
6,5 millions of EUR
Budget total du projet
Chronology
Start of project
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01 March 2023
Start of the project
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30 June 2026
End of project
