Security: Cooperation with the Balkan countries
The Italian police has organized, through the
EUPM (European Union Police Mission), a study visit for the Balkan countries at the Italian-Slovenian-Austrian trilateral Police and Customs
Cooperation Centre (PCCC) of Tarvisio-Thorl-Maglern, from September 12 to 16.
The initiative aims to explain how this centre works, its legal framework, its objectives and working methods as well as the present and future potential of these kind of these cooperation structures.
The EUPM is the international police mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which provides, among other things, project development and training opportunities to bring the police forces of that country in line with the European standards.
The EUPM, on the initiative of the Italian border police in particular, launched the project to establish a Police and Customs Cooperation Centre (PCCC) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (the first in the Balkans) with the participation of the Border police, Immigration and Customs.
This project is part of the challenge that the law enforcement agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries of the western Balkans have to face to reach the EU standards with a view to their future entry into the EU.
The countries directly involved in the setting up of cooperation centres in the Balkan region are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, FYROM-Macedonia, Moldova and Albania.
The Police and Customs Cooperation Centres established by the Shengen Agreement are present along the European borders and consist of a "common room" where the police of the different countries exchange real-time information on various forms of crime.