Regional Workshop “Major Event and Crisis Management: The added value of interoperability and SPOCs”

On the 21st of March 2023 the Countering Serious Crime in the Western Balkans (CSCWB) – IPA 2019 organised the Regional Workshop “Major Event and Crisis Management: The added value of interoperability and SPOCs” in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The workshop was attended by representatives of the beneficiaries of the CSCWB Project involved in international police cooperation, police IT and databases’ systems, while international experiences and best practices were provided by representatives of the Italian Ministry of Interior, INTERPOL General Secretariat, Frontex and Europol, as well as by representatives of the same beneficiaries. This event was the third such workshop organized by the CSCWB Project, within the framework of the proscribed Output 7 and in particular the Key Activity 7.2: Support to the Western Balkans Beneficiaries to achieve the EU MS operational and legal standards on data exchange, carried out by the Italian Ministry of Interior. This includes the topics of Single Point of Contact (SPOCs) and interoperability of information systems and databases. Output 7 deals with interoperability and information exchange with the aim to support the improvement of databases and information systems among the Western Balkans beneficiaries’ and their interoperability with the relevant EU and INTERPOL systems and databases.

The Workshop was opened by the Deputy Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mr. Ivica Bošnjak, and representatives of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR). Three roundtable discussions were held within the workshop dubbed: “Major Event and Crisis Management”, “Implementation of interoperability and its operational benefits” and “The floor to the beneficiaries of the CSCWB – IPA 2019 project”. The workshop gave the Project’s beneficiaries the opportunity to exchange experiences, best practices and results achieved with each other and international partners. It was concluded that Single Points of Contact present a multiplier of efficiency and effectiveness in police work.

The project CSCWB IPA 2019 is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Italian Ministry of Interior (IMoI) and the Center for International Legal Cooperation (CILC), co-financed by the European Union, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Italian Ministry of Interior. Its main objective is to strengthen the cross-border cooperation to counter serious and organised crime in the Western Balkans with institutions and networks of the EU.