On 20-21 May 2010, the minister of internal affairs of the Republic of Moldova, Mr. Victor Catan, participated at the 3rd Meeting of the Committee of Ministers of Internal Affairs of the Police Cooperation Convention for South Eastern Europe.
The event took place in Sofia and was organized under the Ministry of Interior of Bulgaria in the context of the Bulgarian Presidency at this regional forum.
The meeting was chaired by the Minister of Interior of Bulgaria, that detains the presidency at the above mentioned forum and gathered ministers of interior of the member states of the Convention (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia), as well as representatives of European authorities and international organizations (Regional Security Council, Europol, SECI, DCAF).
The ministerial meeting focused, especially, on subjects regarding the obtained successes in the implementation of the Police Cooperation Convention for South Eastern Europe, of which the Republic of Moldova is party, the recommendation on the implementation for future of the communication strategy of the Convention, AND data exchange, trans-border cooperation, progress in the field of fighting against smuggling and terrorism, etc.
Within the plenary session, Mr. Victor Catan had a speech, informing the participants about the successes of the Republic of Moldova in implementing the objectives stipulated in the Convention, efforts appreciated by the participants of the meeting.
Simultaneous, the event offered a good opportunity for assessment of the obtained results, for getting into discussion the upcoming actions for implementing the Convention, as well as organization of bilateral meetings with ministers of interior from the West Balkan’s region, in order to address the development issues for the future for collaboration on the line of internal affairs.
Also, Mr. Victor Catan had a number of meetings with other counterparts from the region (Ministers of Interior from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia). Also, the minister had a meeting with the vice prime-minister, the minister of interior of Bulgaria, Mr. Tsvetan Tsvetanov, who expressed his availability for implementing of all constructive initiatives directed towards assurance of the stability in the region, efficient cooperation with regional partners in solving of all aspects of collaboration in order to combat trans-national crime from the region.
At the end of the session was adopted the Joint Statement of the ministers, as well as was signed the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation and support of the Police Cooperation Convention for South Eastern Europe Secretariat, as well as the adoption of the Joint Statement of the ministers of interior from the region.
Information and Public Relation Department
25 May 2010