Eastern Partnership countries define the way forward in law enforcement cooperation with the EU
CEPOL, the other Justice and Home Affairs agencies, EU Member States, Eastern Partnership countries and the EMPACT community are all working together to improve their cooperation to fight more effectively against serious and organised crime, which respects no borders.
To facilitate this process, CEPOL’s TOPCOP project implemented its fourth Regional Capacity Building Network workshop. The activity focused on strengthening cross-border crime cooperation between the law enforcement of Eastern Partnership countries and the European Union’s Justice and Home Affairs agencies.
The workshop examined the opportunity of increasing the role of the existing Regional Capacity Building Network to build stronger connections with the EMPACT community. As a result of the participants’ deliberations and reflections, the network got merged into the EMPACT Support Network Group. This transition will increase the investigative and operational capacity of the Eastern Partnership countries by establishing a bridge between them and the professionals of the EMPACT network.
The participants from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine explored the EMPACT platform and discussed the possible utilisation of its tools, including Joint Investigation Teams, Joint Action Days and funding programmes. Furthermore, colleagues from FRONTEX, Europol, EMCDDA and Eurojust, as well as the representatives of Member States and the EMPACT community shared best practices on international cooperation, operational casework and successful investigation cases related to organised crime.
As a key result of the workshop, participants managed to define the way forward in law enforcement cooperation with the Eastern Partnership region, especially by the further development of the EMPACT Support Network Group.
The activity was organised in close coordination with FRONTEX, Europol, EMCCDA and Eurojust. It took place on 25-26 April in Warsaw, Poland.
