Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2014.09.23

Sep

23

Preparatory Meeting for Practical Excersise on Cross-Border Cooperation

The preparatory meeting for the First PCC SEE Region-Wide Cross-Border Police Cooperation Exercise, convened under the auspices of the Republic of Bulgaria Chairmanship-In-Office and with support from the PCC SEE Secretariat, took place from 23-26 September 2014 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The meeting was attended by nationally appointed experts on Surveillance and Controlled delivery and EUROPOL representative. The participants discussed the practical execution of the First PCC SEE Region-Wide Cross-Border Police Cooperation Exercise, scheduled to take place between 10 and 19 November 2014. The scenario of the Exercise, codenamed Trappers 2014, was agreed at the meeting and participants also further identified some of the main elements of the exercise which will provide a unique insight into the practical implementation of some of the tools of cross-border police cooperation as provided by the PCC SEE. As such, the participants agreed on the general type of activities to be conducted, established general routes guidelines, defined the “rabbit” (surveyed person of interest) activities and identified the national resources required for the execution of the specific cross-border police activities. Channels of communication in the context of data and information exchange has also been addressed where participants supported the notion set forth by the attending EUROPOL representative, to take full advantage of available EUROPOL channel during the exercise.

This further enriched the potential of the exercise, which will not only show any possible legal and practical gaps in the implementation of the PCC SEE provided cross-border police cooperation tools but also engage all countries in the use of the existing centralised communication channel among the PCC SEE Contracting Parties and practically show its wider-region applicability and its potential impact. This will be an additional opportunity for countries which are not yet using this communication channel on regular basis to test it and utilise its advantages. The outcomes of the exercise will give insight into the current state-of-play and also serve as baseline for drafting future recommendations on filling the possible gaps identified and the corresponding activities to reach this goal.





Chaired by Slovenia from 01 January to 30 June 2024 / Next Chairmanship (1 July - 31 December 2024) by Albania