Fight against organised crime: financial support, programme for the prevention, Hippocrates

PURPOSE : to establish a programme of incentives and exchanges, training and cooperation for the prevention of crime (Hippocrates). CONTENT : the EU has been working on crime prevention since 1996. It has become aware of the limits to the traditional enforcement measures of judicial systems and developed supplementary crime prevention initiatives, albeit in differing degrees. The aim of the present proposal is to support the European crime-prevention strategy established as an objective of the European Union by Article 29 of the Treaty on European Union. It is one of the means of achieving an area of freedom, security and justice in the Union via a closer and more effective cooperation in crime prevention. It follows up points 41 and 42 of the conclusions of the Tampere European Council of 15-16 October 1999, which call for closer cooperation in the area and for study of the possibility of a programme financed by the Community. The Commission has also presented a general communication, concluding among other things that it was necessary to establish a financial instrument to support the European strategy it proposed. The purpose of this instrument, known as the "Hippocrates Programme", is to encourage cooperation between all the public and private organisations in the Member States involved in preventing crime of all kinds, whether organised or not. The programme is widely accessible to all partners concerned on a multidisciplinary basis. The programme is to co-finance training, programmes of exchanges and placements, the organisation of meetings and seminars, studies and research and the dissemination of the results obtained under the programme. The programme is envisaged for a period of two years (2001-02). This is in order to study the feasibility of merging the existing programmes (Grotius, Oisin and Stop) into a single programme governed by Titile VI of the EU Treaty, into which Hippocrates will then also be incorporated.�