Representatives of law enforcement institutions and civil society organisations from Albania, North Macedonia and the Republic of Moldova came together in Chisinau for a regional exchange on inclusive policing. With the support of the European Union and Council of Europe’s joint regional actions, participants explored practical solutions to shared challenges in preventing and combating hatred, discrimination and racism. The event also focused on strengthening cooperation and trust between authorities and minority communities, reinforcing a common commitment to better protect the most vulnerable groups in society.

This peer-exchange was organised as a follow-up to the regional workshop held in Durres (Albania) in June 2025, aiming to foster the platform for exchanging good practices across Eastern Partnership and Western Balkans and explore practical ways for strengthening community policing approaches. In this sense, participants centred the discussions on how to prevent and combat stereotypes and prejudices including at institutional levels, improving the investigation, reporting, and prosecution of hate crimes through a more victim-centred approach, as well as data collection on hate crimes, ensuring continuous police training and capacity building, and joining forces for awareness campaigns to promote tolerance and minority protection.

As part of the exchange, a field visit to Calarasi town was conducted, which offered practical perspectives on policing in action at local level. Meetings with the Police Inspectorate of Calarasi and representatives of local civil society organisations working on minorities’ rights, showed through practical examples and stories shared by participants how local dialogue and trust-based collaboration can reinforce the protection of national, ethnic and religious communities.

This event reaffirmed the European Union and Council of Europe’s support to policing that protects the human rights of all citizens, alongside with the shared commitment of police and civil society to inclusive and human rights-based policing.

The regional event was organised within the project “Promoting equality and non-discrimination: towards more resilient and inclusive societies” and the action “Promoting equality and combating racism and intolerance in the Western Balkans”, which are part the joint European Union and Council of Europe programmes “Partnership for Good Governance” and “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye”.