International Cooperation: Euromed Police III Project
The last meeting scheduled in the framework of the Euromed Police III Project was held in Rome on 12 June 2014. It was attended by top ranking law enforcement officers of EU member countries and Mediterranean partner countries.
The three meetings between representatives of EU countries and ENPI South partner countries, organized as part of the project's activities, were aimed at fostering and coordinating actions and strategies to tackle serious crime.
The first meeting (Spain, July 2012) identified good practices in the fight against drug trafficking and money laundering. The second one (France, April 2013) focused on training as a key factor to enhancing internal security.
The focal point of the Rome meeting was the fight against terrorism, a crucial issue for EU and ENPI Southern partner countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia). The forum represented an opportunity to develop closer links between police and security forces, as regards specialized training and more sophisticated tools in the field of operational cooperation.
In his speech, Police Chief Alessandro Pansa emphasized the importance of cooperation among all the countries concerned: "Our common goal is to make citizens safer, and to achieve this aim we need a common ground for action, beyond any differences in regulations and investigative techniques".
"Nowadays - said Prefect Pansa -, besides large organized crime groups, we also have to tackle smaller criminal gangs, committing robberies and thefts across borders".
"Training and information sharing - he continued - are key factors in reducing crime, and in particular international terrorism generated by instability in the Mediterranean region".
He also addressed the issue of cyber crime: "Cyber attacks can come from every part of the world, jeopardizing both economic circuits and national critical infrastructures. For this reason we need to enforce a joint action".
The Euromed Police III Project, funded by the European Commission, aims at providing advanced training in the fight against serious crime, such as terrorism and organized crime offences (drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings, cyber crime, financial crime, money laundering, child pornography).
Developing modern and shared investigation techniques against transnational crime also rests on exchanging opinions and experiences on specific criminal issues and blending the legal instruments to combat them.