On May 5, the Minister of Interior of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro* and The former Republic of Macedonia will sign a Police Co-operation Convention in Vienna. The ceremony will take place in the framework of a conference organised by the Austrian EU Presidency entitled The Role of internal security in relations between the EU and its neighbours (taking place on 4 and 5 May).

The convention will create a legal basis for police co-operation in the SEE region, which will develop working relationships based on trustful co-operation between all SEE police forces. This working co-operation between the police will in turn lead to improving the efficiency in the fight against organised crime, by enabling exchange of data, regulate witness protection, enable cross-border police activities, build joint investigation groups, as well as building joint police patrols and co-ordinate joint training and education.

The Police Co-operation Convention is an important step forward in bringing EU standards to the region in police co-operation and the fight against organised crime. The Schengen Treaty has been taken as the model for this Convention, but during the negotiation rounds other police conventions, mainly the Austrian - German Police Convention and the Austrian - Switzerland - Liechtenstein Police Convention, were used as practical examples of police co-operation in Europe.

The Project itself has been on the agenda of the Austrian EU Presidency and was initiated by the Austrian Ministry of Interior's Federal Criminal Intelligence Service and financially backed by Germany. The Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe Erhard Busek added further support to this project politically, in accordance with the EU Presidency. An Austrian project team giving advice and guidelines co-ordinated the progress of the negotiations with Europol and the Stability Pact providing expert support to the negotiations process.

* signed by the Minister of Interior or Serbia and Minister of Interior Montenegro