INTERPOL hosts European Troika co-operation meeting to boost regional security through global approach

LYON, France, Suara Indonesia News – A meeting bringing together Europe’s Troika of the Article 36 Committee (CATS) and INTERPOL was held yesterday at the global police organization’s General Secretariat in Lyon to discuss and best identify ways of strengthening co-operation between INTERPOL and the European Union (EU).

Talks between the Troika – consisting of delegations from the current French Presidency of the EU, the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU, the EU Commission, as well as from the forthcoming Czech EU Presidency and Europol – and INTERPOL’s European Committee (IEC) particularly focused on the need for both international arenas of co-operation to avoid duplication of international law enforcement work and harness their initiatives to establish synergies to address today’s security challenges.

The meeting saw the European Troika and INTERPOL review a number of initiatives and issues, which included:

* extending access to INTERPOL’s tools and services, including its global Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database which contains more than 16 million entries
* cyber-crime, particularly trans-border organized crime and internet-facilitated crimes against children and the need to address such offences through international investigations given that such crimes require that police co-operate across borders and the digital divide worldwide
* establishing standards and a compatible database architecture on the exchange of information on stolen works of art, and
* ways of strengthening the exchange of police information, taking into account personal data protection instruments within both bodies on the handling and exchange of personal data

Other topics for discussion included capacity building in Africa to enhance law enforcement action, including against drug trafficking which is an important concern for the EU. In this respect INTERPOL outlined its Operational Assistance Services and Infrastructure Support (OASIS) programme for police infrastructure development in Africa – funded by Germany with more than 20 million Euros over four years – through a global and integrated approach to fighting crime. Eventually, the OASIS model will be rolled out to all of INTERPOL’s regions.

The meeting also discussed mutual strategies to increase and extend their co-operation on police training – one of INTERPOL’s core functions – as highlighted via current collaboration between INTERPOL and the European Police College CEPOL.

'The European Union is a very important component of INTERPOL’s Europe region; it has supported many important INTERPOL initiatives that have helped to keep European citizens safer,” said INTERPOL Executive Director for Police Services Jean-Michel Louboutin. “INTERPOL, underpinned by its neutrality and global police services across 187 member countries, will therefore continually seek to identify ways of institutionalizing and enhancing its strategic relationship with the EU in the cause of global law enforcement.”

The concept of strategic global partnerships is central to INTERPOL’s future mission as enshrined in its Global Security Initiative (GSI), with the organization having entered into a variety of partnerships with the European Union, United Nations, and the private sector.

“Today's discussions between the European Union's CATS Troïka and INTERPOL have clearly highlighted the need for closer ties between the two institutions, particularly in the areas of stolen or lost travel documents, cybercrime and stolen works of art. As a worldwide organization, INTERPOL is well-positioned to give considerable support to European initiatives,” said Ms Geneviève Bourdin, Inspecteur Général, Head of the European and International Affairs Unit at the Office of the Director General of French National Police, at the end of the visit.

Since INTERPOL's 37th European Regional Conference in Lithuania in May this year, Mr. Pierre Reuland, former Director General of Luxembourg Police Grand-Ducale, has been appointed as Special Representative of INTERPOL to the European Union in order to set up an INTERPOL office in Brussels and to strengthen the partnership in police co-operation with the European Union.