Press Release
Bucharest, 13 December 2006 -- Major topics of strengthening the cooperation among the SECI States in close cooperation with their major partners in fighting against the terrorist threat and terrorist activities were discussed on the occasion of the Third SECI Antiterrorism Task Force Meeting, held on 7 December in Istanbul.
The national law enforcement officials from the SECI Member States -Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey, together with the representatives from the Observer States - Azerbaijan, Georgia, Poland, Spain, Ukraine and USA, as well as representatives from the international organizations - Europol, ICITAP Kiev, NATO/HQ Naples, Regional Arms Control Verification Implementation Assistance Center (RACVIAC), Stability Pact, United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and Euro-Atlantic Advisory Team participated to the gathering.
The participants to the event stressed that the organized crime and terrorism represent serious threats to the national security, values, rights and freedoms in the region and growth of this phenomena is a reality threatening at national and international levels.
Terrorist organizations, including those operating in South East Europe (SEE) could make their profit from these crimes.
The official representatives of the Member and Observer States as well as the representatives of the international organizations participating to the event emphasized that the SECI Center should play an increasing role and further should be enforced as a strong Regional Center for fighting organized crime and terrorism by: developing strategic assessments on organized crime and terrorist threats, identifying and promoting a common understanding of best practices for fighting organized crime and terrorism, enhancing cooperation between intelligence services and national law enforcement agencies, establishing a SEE Program for early warning system, conducting and disseminating timely analysis of terrorist attacks and researching possible links to SEE countries as well as sharing lessons learned, organizing by training courses and best practices in the fight against terrorism and organized crime, improving the communication network, including the transmission of the classified information, setting up a videoconference system between the member countries, improving the cooperation with judicial authorities and supporting the South East European Prosecutor Advisory Group (SEEPAG), creating a network of national contact persons on terrorism issues, including intelligence services, police and prosecutor offices, using the SECI communication system for the information exchange.
Further cooperation with INTERPOL, EUROPOL, WCO, FBI and other national and international organizations with a view of allowing information exchange, access to databases and joint operations were identified as major means of achieving positive results in preventing, early warning and fighting against organized crime and terrorism. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
