[bnr.bg] Serbia’s capital Belgrade played host to the Sixth Annual
Ministerial for cooperation in Southeast Europe border security.
Special guest to the forum was Bulgarian Interior Minister Mihail
Mikov. According to him the conference’s theme is not exhausted with
border security but has to do with good police cooperation and
interaction and with the region’s states’ joint capacity in combating
cross-border crime. It is obvious, he said, that in the last 10-15
years crime has become global transgressing national borders. This
necessitates harmonization of national legislations and a transition
from national to supranational decision-making that would facilitate
cooperation in combating crime. Mikov explained that there are
different platforms assisting exchange of specialized information in
organized crime combating – within the EU, among member countries
through the Schengen Code, and regionally through the Cooperation
Convention for Southeast Europe ratified only recently by the Bulgarian
parliament.
In Belgrade Mihail Mikov held a series of talks. Emerging from a
meeting with his counterpart Ivica Dacic, Minister Mikov said that one
objective of cooperation was to create a legal basis for the exchange
of information that would serve both military and police cooperation.
Mikov finally said the conference had been very useful.
After Belgrade dialogue between the two ministers continued in
Sofia, while Ivica Dacic was paying an official visit last Wednesday.
Mikov and Dacic discussed measures to improve joint efforts in
combating organized crime and continued the dialogue that had started
in Belgrade on the project for the construction of a contact center at
Kalotina border checkpoint. The project will make sure that the
Bulgarian and Serbian border police forces will be able to work
together. During talks the two ministers commented on the need to step
up work on the agreements for protection of classified information, as
well as on opening a new checkpoint between Bulgaria and Serbia. It is
high time indeed, for Bulgaria and Serbia to start work jointly in
combating organized crime, since – as Minister Mihail Mikov put it –
criminals have already achieved a high level of cooperation on both
sides of the border.
Source: http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_English/News/en1403dkB1.htm
