Organized Crime

Minutes of the 3rd SPOC Board Meeting

The SPOC Board was hosted by the Austrian Ministry of the Interior/Criminal Intelligence Service and chaired by Mr. Christian Jechoutek, Head of Department II/BK 2 - International Police Cooperation. Ambassador Janez Premoze (Chair of SCSP, WT III) addressed the meeting and further contributions were made by Mr. Pieter Verbeek (Director of SCSP WT III), Sebastian von Münchow (Expert of SCSP WT III Sub Table JHA) and Mr. Hans Haller (Deputy of the SPOC Board Chairperson). Special circumstances had prevented the Head of the SPOC Secretariat, Ms. Gabriela Konevska, from attending.

The following international organizations and SCSP initiatives had sent representatives to the Board: Police Forum/OCTN, SECI Center, EUROPOL, INTERPOL, Business Advisory Council, EU-Commission, OSCE and UNODC. Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia/Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Romania and Moldova represented the SEE region. The following EU member states took part: France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and Ireland. Representatives from the USA, Switzerland, Norway and Turkey took part from other SCSP partner states. The accession countries were represented by Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary. Finally, the following companies attended the Board: Group 4 Falck AG, ICC, IBM-Microsoft, Siemens AG and Europay.

Item 1 Opening remarks

The Head of the Criminal Intelligence Service Austria, Mr. Herwig Haidinger, opened the Board. He emphasized the practical approach of this event and expressed his hope that this approach would be in line with the aims of the Stability Pact and the EU. The Chair of SCSP WT III and the Director of WT III stressed the need to strengthen cooperation between judiciary and police structures in SEE in order to fight organized crime. They also underlined the importance of the result-oriented approach of this meeting and stressed the importance of cooperation between SPOC, European institutions and international organisations. The representatives of the private business sector were welcomed since they could contribute an added value in future forms of cooperation.

Item 2 Palermo TOC/SEECP campaign against organized crime & corruption

The Director of WT III introduced the main elements of a regional campaign against organized crime and corruption in SEE. He stressed that an SEECP campaign against organized crime and corruption would constitute a necessary element of the SPOC Work Plan 2004. In this regard, WT III gave a presentation on the current status of the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo TOC) in SEE and how this process is monitored from Brussels. Austria stressed the importance of elaborating international standards regarding the aspect of money laundering under the Palermo TOC (FATF standards and regional standards for financial institutions and banks).

Item 3 SPOC Work Plan 2004

The Director of WT III introduced the major elements of the SPOC Work Plan draft 2004: Continue monitoring the implementation of the Palermo TOC; SEECPC campaign against organized crime and corruption; dialogue facilitation regarding the rapprochement process between the SECI Center – European institutions; and sharing transition experience to fight organized criminal groups operating cross-border. He also stressed the need to aim for concrete results and better coordination (i.e. Police Forum and SPOC). Comments from the participants, inter alia from SPTF and the SECI Center, underlined the need for concrete achievements, i.e. improving the arrest rate. In addition, it was mentioned that all efforts should avoid duplication. The SECI Center announced to present an Action Plan in due time. Europol highlighted the need to assist SEE countries on data protection issues and reported on bilateral agreements in SEE. Europol announced its assistance in the area of training and reported on the envisioned establishment of a task force to evaluate the various European crime-fighting efforts in the region. Canada emphasized the need for a survey of existing needs for support. Finally, Germany called upon the region to implement the Palermo TOC as an obligation under international public law. In case, actual implementation and results cannot be reported, further donations would be reconsidered.

Item 4 cooperation mechanisms

The Director of WT III explained that SEECP, UNODC, the Commission, Council of Europe and other key actors should ensure more complementarity in their work to combat organized crime in SEE. He sees SPOC as stimulator, niche player, as well as support mechanism for SEECP efforts to fight organized criminal groups. The EU Commission would be monitoring its activities, but also SCSP initiatives such as SPTF and SPAI could contribute to follow-up action. Referring to an internal SCSP WT III JHA meeting on 19/01, he added that SPOC might play a more central role in relation to the other task forces. He concluded that SPOC would play a key role in the above-mentioned campaign, the monitoring process and the Palermo TOC implementation, policy advocacy, capacity building and assisting SEECP in creating regional monitoring mechanisms.

The SECI Center introduced its law enforcement mandate. Norway supported the aim to explore practical approaches and saluted a closer cooperation between SPOC and the Police Forum as envisioned to be discussed in Police Forum meeting scheduled for 4 March. Canada informed the participants on an up-coming concept paper from CIDA on assistance in the rule of law area. It does not exclude that support for policing projects could result from this concept. The European Commission expressed its appreciation for the SPOC strategy framework. The Commission reported on ideas to reactivate Interpol for the regional fight against organized crime. It reported on CARDS projects focussing police, justice and penitentiary matters and asked potential project implementers to make sure that efforts are complementing running projects as far as the five Sap countries are concerned. The Commission stressed the Thessaloniki process and the results from the EU – Western Balkans JHA ministerial meeting held in Brussels on 28 November 2003. It announced another EU-Western Balkans JHA Ministerial meeting by the end of 2004 where the follow-up to the Brussels Ministerial commitments would be reviewed.The Chair closed this part of the discussion. He expressed his will for a close cooperation between the various SCSP task forces and all other relevant actors. He agreed with the notions requesting a practical approach.

Informal session

Experts leading prepared projects introduced various modules aiming to strengthen the police structures in the region (money laundering, currency counterfeiting, witness protection, data protection, undercover investigations, target search, senior management training, informants management, and police law convention). On this occasion, a representative from SECI – BAC gave a presentation on eventual private business – SPOC issues of complementarity.

Please, find the list of modules, implementing agencies, beneficiary countries and donors in Annex I.