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.

SEC(2006)1798
EUR-Lex

This Commission staff working document consists of a report on the ex post evaluation of Grotius II, Oisin II, Stop II, Falcone and Hippokrates Programmes and the interim evaluation of the AGIS Programme.

To recall, since January 2003, the five former Programmes established under Title VI (Grotius, Oisin, Stop, Falcone and Hippokrates), that ran from 1996 until 2002, were brought together into a single Programme - the AGIS Framework Programme (2003-2007).

The main objectives of this document are as follows:

to present a summary of the main results and conclusions of this evaluation; to assess the main recommendations; to present concrete proposals for the next programming period and, notably, to draw conclusions relevant to the implementation of the Programmes that are to replace the AGIS Programme.

The Commission has already presented to the Council and the European Parliament proposals for Programmes to replace the AGIS Programme (the Security Programme and, to some extent, the Justice Programme) in the next programming period. It must be underlined that the recommendations both general and specific that are discussed in this paper can be fully implemented under the new legal framework.

As regards the former Title VI Programmes, the ex post evaluation was centred on the last 2 years of implementation – 2001 and 2002. The evaluation exercise therefore focused on STOP II, Oisin II and Grotius II, which are the so-called second generation of Programmes, as well as in Hippokrates (2001/2002) and Falcone (2001/2002).

In the case of the interim evaluation of the AGIS Programme, the analysis focused on the 2 first years of implementation – 2003 and 2004 , where a majority of grant-aided projects was still ongoing.

In geographical terms, the study covered all the countries that participated in the Programme - Member States (then 15), candidate countries (now the new 10 Member States) and third countries.

The main overall conclusions of the evaluation are as follows:

the former Title VI programmes as well as the AGIS programme have been useful programmes that have made a very positive contribution to increasing knowledge, understanding and trust among target groups, which are crucial factors for increasing cross-national co-operation in the area, and ultimately to creating an area of justice, freedom and security; all programmes have led to the implementation of effective projects that in most cases would not have existed without the financial support of the programmes, or would have existed in a different format, where less focus would have been on the transnational aspects. While most stakeholders recognise the need and the benefits arising from transnational co-operation projects, there are few alternative funding opportunities that allow similar projects to take place; the transnational element is strong in most of the projects that have been implemented. It has, however, been more predominant or better integrated under the AGIS programme, as compared to the former Title VI programmes. The main explanation for this could be the strengthened requirements concerning partnerships; the programmes have led to the creation and strengthening of many formal and informal networks and this can be said to be one of their main merits. For the former Title VI programmes, it can be concluded that sustainable benefits do arise from these networks and that networks are generally found to be useful beyond the scope and lifetime of projects. the programmes were generally not found to be demand driven, in the sense that policy priorities and objectives do not determine the portfolio of projects. Objectives are broad and not clearly prioritised, allowing applicants to claim that most of their ideas match the programme objectives. Rather than being EU demand driven, most projects are thus supply driven, resulting from the specific interest of possible promoters; related to the previous point, Member States (programme committees) generally play a limited role in the formulation of specific objectives for annual work programmes, despite a specific AGIS Committee meeting every year being devoted to an examination of the annual work programme. Instead, the role of Member States’ representatives in the committees is mainly found to be as advocates for national interests in the selection of particular projects.

The report concludes that the aim of the external evaluation and, even more so, of this paper is to feed into the implementation of the remainder of the AGIS Programme as well as the new programmes after 2006. The proposals from the Commission for new programmes from 2007 are compatible with the conclusions and recommendations of this document, as the former set quite a broad legislative framework and the latter pertain more to the policy use of the programmes and their implementation mechanisms.

As concerns the specific recommendations on implementing mechanisms, there is no doubt that they have to be applied during the next programming period.

Furthermore, the selection criteria for objectives and priority areas for the funding programmes need to be defined and agreed by all involved in the management of the programme. It is clear that founding documents, such as the Hague Programme and Action Plan, provide commonly agreed overall political objectives, which then need to be translated into concrete milestones for programme implementation. It is suggested that this is an iterative process between the Commission and the relevant management structures of the programmes, once views from relevant stakeholders have been collected and integrated.

In conclusion, all-embracing programmes as they currently exist would give way to much more specific ones, with outcomes, results and eventually impacts being more systematically disseminated and monitored.

SEC(2006)0333
EUR-Lex

This is a Commission prepared “Annual Report and Work-plan on the European Forum for the Prevention of Organised Crime 2004”. The Report notes that this is the fourth year of the Forum’s existence. Since then it has fulfilled its purpose as a European networking tool for those involved in crime prevention. The Forum has continued to act as a useful platform for an open debate on, and analysis of, matters relating to organised crime amongst a wide range of stakeholders at a European, national, regional and local level. In 2004 the Forum held workshops on Crime Statistics, Data Protection and Data Retention, Fiscal Fraud and Financial Crime, Cultural Goods, Trafficking in Human Beings, Terrorism and Organised Crime and Counterfeiting and Piracy. Similar workshops are planned for 2005 with topics up for discussion including, the export/import of firearms, Member State meeting on the Western Balkans, witness protection and terrorism financing using the non-profit sector.

SEC(2005)0524
EUR-Lex

Decision 2001/515
OJ L 186 07.07.2001, p. 0011

CDR0100/2001
OJ C 357 14.12.2001, p. 0061

CES0716/2001
OJ C 221 07.08.2001, p. 0103

T5-0197/2001
OJ C 021 24.01.2002, p. 0257-0329 E

T5-0197/2001

Debate in Parliament

A5-0094/2001

A5-0094/2001

EUR-Lex
COM(2000)0786
OJ C 096 27.03.2001, p. 0244 E

EUR-Lex
COM(2000)0786