23.05.2011, 10:06

Western Balkan Police Chief's meeting


On 19-20 May 2011 in Brdo, Slovenia, the Police Cooperation Convention for Southeast Europe Secretariat (hereinafter referred to as: the Secretariat) and the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Slovenia organised a meeting of Directors-General of Police from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, the Republic of Serbia, all Contracting Parties to Convention, and the Republic of Croatia.

Highly placed on the agenda of the meeting was the Post-Visa Liberalisation Monitoring Mechanism for the Western Balkan countries and the Directors-General of Police were given the opportunity to present on the activities undertaken in their respective countries with the aim of preventing negative side effects of the visa liberalisation process. The outcomes of the fruitful debate were as follows:

1. The Directors-General of Police exchanged best practises in tackling problems related to the visa liberalisation process in their respective countries;
2. They agreed that special attention should be given to intensifying the work of the criminal police, for e.g. when interviewing the persons denied crossing the border with an EU MS;
3. They agreed that emphasis should be placed on intensified border control at the border crossing points.
The debate also showed that all the countries of the Region affected by the negative side effect of the visa liberalisation process, highly appreciate and value the non-visa regime for their citizens and have undertaken all the possible measures in order to ensure that this visa-free regime is not jeopardised.

Besides issues related to the post-visa liberalisation process, the participants discussed issues related to the establishment of common centres for police cooperation, the Slovenian Initiative on Establishing a Subgroup on Cocaine within SECI, the Counterterrorist initiative,  the Slovenian-led (EC funded) project on “Introducing the Conditions for the Establishment of Joint Investigation Teams in the fight against Trafficking in Human Beings in Southeast Europe” and project on Cybercrime, as well as other important issues concerning regional and international cooperation. The participants were also given a practical demonstration of tasks of the Specialised Police Mountain Unit.


   




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