On 5 May 2006, the Police Cooperation Convention for Southeast Europe (PCC SEE) was signed, reflecting the Southeast European countries’ intention to address organised and serious cross-border crime more comprehensively and effectively, and to align their policing standards with those of the European Union and Schengen area. The PCC SEE was signed in Vienna during the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU by the ministers responsible for home affairs from the Republic of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, and the Republic of Serbia. The PCC SEE came into force on 10 October 2007.

Since its ratification, the PCC SEE has expanded its membership beyond its initial geo-political borders - the Republic of Bulgaria acceded to the PCC SEE on 25 September 2008,  the Republic of Austria on 24 May 2011, Hungary on 6 July 2012, the Republic of Slovenia on 14 December 2012, and the Republic of Croatia on 15 February 2019.

As a multilateral treaty ratified by the respective parliaments of 6 EU and 6 non-EU Member States, the PCC SEE provides a legal framework for cross-border law enforcement cooperation. It incorporates a range of modern forms of cooperation modelled on EU good practices, including joint threat analysis, liaison officers, hot pursuit, witness protection, cross-border surveillance, controlled delivery, undercover investigations to investigate crimes and to prevent criminal offences, transmission and comparison of DNA profiles and other identification material, technical measures for facilitating cross-border cooperation, border search operations, mixed analysis working groups, joint investigation teams, mixed patrols along the state borders and cooperation in common centres.

Since 13 September 2018, the PCC SEE also serves as the framework convention for the Agreement on the automated exchange of DNA data, dactyloscopic data and vehicle registration data between the Parties to the Police Cooperation Convention for Southeast Europe (PCC Prüm Agreement), which represents a milestone in enhancing security within the PCC SEE region.

The PCC Prüm Agreement is modelled on two EU Prüm Decisions, enabling a country to query DNA, dactyloscopic and vehicle registration data in one or several other countries’ national databases. The system provides a reply including no personal data, but only reference data, if any matching data sets (hits) were found. After a hit is confirmed, the country can request follow-up personal and case related data from the country concerned. In case of vehicle registration data, the additional data is provided immediately with a hit.

To date, the PCC Prüm Agreement has been signed by nine PCC SEE Contracting Parties, namely: Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia. In March 2022, the Parties additionally signed a Protocol amending the PCC Prüm Agreement.

Following the signing of the PCC SEE in 2006, the PCC SEE Committee of Ministers supported the establishment of a technical expert body to assist the Contracting Parties in the PCC SEE implementation process. The PCC SEE Secretariat, functional as of September 2008, is hosted and supported by DCAF - Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance at its regional office in Ljubljana. DCAF contributes by providing staff, premises and back-office support for the functioning of the PCC SEE Secretariat, while the Contracting Parties themselves also contribute with secondments (currently Austria). 

According to the Memorandum of Understanding signed between DCAF and the Contracting Parties, the Secretariat serves as a technical expert body with a specific mandate to provide them support and assistance in the implementation of the PCC SEE, as well as the PCC Prüm Agreement. It creates the environment for the Contracting Parties to set policies, enhance national capacities and reconcile common standards, maintains and coordinates dialogue on common priorities and interests, seeks financial and partner assistance with international partners and EU agencies, offers strategic guidance in streamlining the implementation process, and assists in the logistical execution of all activities. The work of the PCC SEE Secretariat is consistently aligned with the identified needs and priorities set by the Contracting Parties and implemented under their rotating chairmanships.

The primary pillars of the PCC SEE Secretariat’s support can be categorised into three main strands of activities:

1)    Facilitating a smooth decision-making process overseen by the two PCC SEE statutory bodies - the Expert Working Group and the Committee of Ministers, whose role is to oversee the implementation, interpretation, and application of the PCC SEE and PCC Prüm Agreement. These bodies take necessary decisions based on the principle of unanimity and create the conditions to enable the practical implementation of both shared multilateral treaties.

2)    Organising thematic-centred capacity building and problem-solving activities for practitioners, including regular gatherings of formally established working groups/networks (e.g. on the technical implementation of the PCC Prüm Agreement, on forged and fake travel documents, cross-border surveillance, joint investigation teams, etc.), ad hoc groups of specialists (e.g. undercover investigators, legal experts, IT specialists, etc.), trainings, workshops, study visits and practical exercises. Such activities also foster peer-to-peer exchange of knowledge and experience, as well as contribute to enhancing mutual trust and understanding of national specificities.

3)    Providing support to the operational cooperation, such as financial and logistical aid in short-term deployments of investigators between the Contracting Parties to offer on-the-spot assistance in ongoing criminal investigations. 

The practical use of both legal frameworks is supported by an implementation process, which ultimately aims to enable cross-border law enforcement cooperation following EU standards already years before all PCC SEE Contracting Parties have become EU Member States. The process encompasses the strategic and operational development of common standards, capacities and solutions for their use in practice, while simultaneously facilitates the efforts of the non-EU Contracting Parties in their EU accession.

The PCC SEE Secretariat adopts a top-down and bottom-up approach in the process to allow for the proper identification and resolution of observed obstacles, such as e.g. normative ambiguities, lack of established procedures and technical interoperability, at different levels.

Activities are targeted based on the priorities and needs defined by the PCC SEE Contracting Parties through an established decision-making mechanism, with the PCC SEE Expert Working Group and Committee of Ministers serving as the highest decision-making bodies.