Timeframe: 13 May 2014
Location: SELEC Headquarters
Description:
Bucharest, May 13, 2014 – During the 4th Meeting of Environment and Nature Related Crimes Task Force held today at SELEC premises in Bucharest, about 40 experts from SELEC Member States and partners (SEEPAG, Ukraine and USA) discussed on the current situation in the field of countering environment and nature related crimes and also about the future steps to be taken for developing the operational activities within this task force.
The Environment and Nature Related Crimes Task Force was set up in 2009 being coordinated by Hungary. In 2013, in the framework of this task force, SELEC supported one joint investigation under the umbrella of the Crimes against Cultural Heritage Goods Sub-group.
The participants in the meeting debated and approved the Evaluation Report of the Regional Operation “ORION II”.
The Operation “ORION II” was carried out in two phases during 4th – 7th of October and 8th – 11th of November 2013 with the participation of 10 Member States (Republic of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Bulgaria, Republic of Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Hungary, Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Romania and Republic of Serbia), and primarily focused on joint and coordinated measures of the law enforcement agencies and all the other competent authorities of the participating Member States against perpetrators and abettors committing illegal hunting.
Taking into consideration the high increase of the threat posed by environmental and nature related crimes in the region and beyond, the need for closer cooperation was strongly underlined by the participants.
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