Southeast European countries agreed in a regional conference to
increase border security to fight organized crime, the Croatian
official news agency Hina reported yesterday.
The agreement was reached on the fourth ministerial conference
on border security in Southeast Europe, which ended in the southern
Adriatic resort of Dubrovnik yesterday.
Croatian Interior Minister Ivica Kirin said that all Southeast
European states agreed that strengthening international police
cooperation and border services, in line with the best European
practice and Schengen standards, was an important prerequisite for
successfully fighting the increasingly capable international
organized crime which possessed state-of-the-art equipment.
The intention of the event was to bring Southeast European
countries closer to better transborder cooperation in suppressing
organized crime, the report said.
Participants underlined that all states in the region had
organized their border police forces and significantly improved the
implementation of EU standards in line with agreed strategies.
A total of 110 participants from 20 states attended the
three-day conference, which was jointly organized by the Croatian
Interior Ministry and the Geneva-based Center for the Democratic
Control of Armed Forces.
(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2007)
