“DEMETER” JOINT OPERATION
Within the framework of the Priority Area 11 of the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region, the Ministry of Interior of Hungary initiated a project called “Setting up the Structure of a Danube River Forum”(DARIF). At the Final Conference the representatives of the ten member states of the DARIF project (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine) unanimously adopted the Joint Recommendations that contain the results of the three successful Joint Operations implemented during the project and support the organization of a new joint action in order to strengthen the safety and security of the Danube water way.
In the light of the Joint Recommendations, Ministry of Interior of Hungary organised a new joint operation (called DEMETER Joint Operation), which was implemented between 30 May and 3 July 2016. Based on the experiences of the previous operations a Temporary Coordination Centre was been set up in Mohács, where the coordination of the joint action took place.
Nine member states (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine) and the international organizations (Europol, Interpol, Aquapol) sent one liaison officer to Mohács for the operation. The team was responsible first of all for maintaining the constant flow of information, for the implementation of their national operational plans, for the daily contact between the Temporary Coordination Centre and their national contact points and also for the mutual assistance among them. The national operational plans were based on the needs, demands, risk analyses, available resources and chosen objectives of each country. The representatives of the Europol and the Interpol provided the operation with the constant access to the international databases.
Controls covered the whole length of the Danube and its banks, as well as the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal. Altogether there were 977 officials deployed, the used 146 duty boats and 165 duty cars per day. Totally 110 passenger cruise ships, 242 tugboats, 8809 persons and 6182 documents were checked during the controls. Case of illegal border crossing, illegal transportation of fish, illegal fishing, gasoil theft, evasion of oil tax, illegal employment and several contraventions were detected. The authorities launched several administrative procedures and imposed fines.
Taking into account result of the joint operation we can say that monitoring small boats constitute a permanent tasks and the main focus of the further joint operations should be on the fight against illegal migration and secondarily on the prevention of smuggling goods through cross-checks on declared goods in loading, transit and unloading harbours.
Looking to the future the next level of the joint cooperation could be setting up bilateral coordination points and carrying out actions in mixed teams on participating states common borders. Last but not least, the cooperation should be maintained and strengthened on usual days too, since it is our common interest
