BUCHAREST, February 6th – The SECI Center management welcomed on Tuesday a delegation from the Task Force on Organized Crime in the Baltic Sea Region. The two parties agreed on the need of common support on specific operations and projects.
“I am sure that for the future it’s a must to start cooperation. And I believe we can establish all the details this year. Our Center is transparent in the sense of cooperation, and our purpose is to develop lawenforcement cooperation.”, Mitja Močnik, Director of the SECI Center declared.
Staffan Kvarnström, National OPC-Coordinator (Sweden) stressed out the advantages of cooperation between the two organizations: “The Task Force on Organized Crime in the Baltic Sea Region is a multidisciplinary regional tool for the prevention of organized crime. Our network today has a natural ending in Slovenia. The SECI Center has connection further East in Europe.”
On this occasion, the members of the delegation have made presentation of their activity and projects to the liaison officers working at the SECI Center.
The SECI Regional Center for Combating Transborder Crime, headquartered in Bucharest, Romania, was launched in 2000, and is a unique operational organization in which police and customs liaison officers from 12 member states (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey) work together in direct cooperation, coordinate joint investigations and facilitate information exchange.
Besides the member countries, there are 21 observers, countries and organizations: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Canada, EUBAM, France, Georgia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Ukraine, UNDP Romania, the United Kingdom, UNMIK, and the United States of America.
Italy and the United States maintain permanent representation at the SECI Center, and Interpol and the World Customs Organization are permanent (non-resident) advisors to the SECI Center.
