Participants were welcomed by Mr. Anton Travner, Head of PCC SEE Secretariat, who pointed out the five pillars for successful police co-operation such as legal basis, knowledge, resources, communicational channels and most important of all, mutual trust.

Mr. Janko Goršek, Police Director General of the Slovenian Police, stressed that combating organised and cross-border crime which has overgrown the state borders over the years is no longer the problem of individual country but is becoming a global challenge. It is expected for police services to use all expert knowledge and technical resources in legal frameworks to prevent, discover and investigate all criminal activities such as human trafficking, trafficking illegal substances, drugs, weapons or illegal goods, as well as to provide high level of security in the countries in the region.

Mr. Claudiu Vasile Cucu, Head of Combating Organised Crime Directorate of the Romanian State Police, presented problems which Romania faces daily in the field of trafficking designer drugs and expressed his believes that this kind of meetings can lead to successful co-operation of the police services in the region to fight against organised crime.

Mr. Vinko Gorenak, Ph.D., Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Slovenia, also welcomed participants and stressed Slovenia’s role in the field of bilateral and regional co-operation, and how meetings such as this one can strengthen the mutual trust and especially to contribute to better exchange of good practises or data exchange. Only high level experts like the participants of this meeting can find suitable and efficient form of collaboration between the countries in the region to combat organised and cross-border crime inside local, regional or European Union borders.

Participants were at the meeting introduced to security threats in the countries of the Southeast Europe and discussed which forms of co-operation between police services are crucial and most effective in combating organised crime, as well as the priorities and innovative solutions in times of limited resources. They also visited the common contact centre for police co-operation between Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia in Dolga Vas.