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

This Commission Staff Working Document presents annual report for 2005 on the activities of the European Forum for the prevention of organised crime. The paper gives details of the workshops held in 2005 and provides an overview of debates in specific fields.

These are the following:

• fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payments: a majority of Member States reported that the investigation of non-cash payment fraud committed on-line might be handled by the computer crime or high tech crime unit;
• prevention of terrorist financing through the non-profit sector: meetings gave further consideration to the EU implementation of FATF Special Recommendation VIII regarding non-profit organisations, with special regard to mechanisms addressing the vulnerability of non-profit organisations to terrorist financing;
• European policy on the use of Passenger Name Records: many Member States indicated that there was an urgent need for common rules in the area. The main purposes should be the fight against terrorism, and organised crime, plus border controls. It is agreed that there is no need for a central point at EU-level but the creation of a network at EU-level of specialist teams dealing with PNR data could be considered;
• electronic evidence: the exchange of views concerned the legal framework for capturing and exchanging data which could be used as electronic evidence, the role of the judicial authorities during the collection of the data and assessment of electronic evidence at a trial. A further issue related to the safeguards which should be adopted to protect the accused person's rights and personal data;
• investigative tools: the Commission put forward the possibility of setting up a central platform in order to address Member States’ needs, share problems and technical solutions and participate in development projects. This structure would have a new horizontal and political approach, different from the existing structures;
• tackling human trafficking: key themes to emerge included the importance of addressing root causes of trafficking and further developing collaboration between government and civil society;
• public private partnership: there was broad agreement that Public Private Partnerships can strengthen cooperation between regulators, providers and users of services in order to enhance security;
• new financial programme “Prevention of and fight against crime” (2007-2013). The views expressed were considered as part of an ex-ante evaluation of the new financial instrument.