THE FINAL CONFERENCE OF THE DARIF CLOSED THE TWO-YEAR PERIOD OF THE SUCCESSFUL INTERNATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT PROJECT
The Final Conference was held 12-13 May 2015 in Budapest in the Ministry of Interior of Hungary with the aim to present the results achieved during the two years of the project and to shed light on the possibility for further cooperation in the future. High-level delegations from the ten member states of the project and representatives of the Hungarian governmental organizations, law enforcement agencies and NGOs were present at the Final Conference. The almost 80 participants were presented the results of the expert groups and at the closing session unanimously adopted the Joint Recommendations that will be the basis of the future cooperation.
Ms Krisztina Berta Deputy State Secretary for EU and International Relations opened the Final Conference of the DARIF and emphasized that the security of the Danube waterway is a priority, thus the Hungarian project aimed at a full-scale law enforcement cooperation including criminal, border management, customs, water policing and disaster management organs. Among the keynote speeches Mr Tamás Szűcs, Head of the European Commission Representation in Hungary, Mr István Joó, Ministerial Commissioner responsible for the co-ordination of the EU Danube Strategy in Hungary, Mr Christoph Hübner, German co-ordinator of the EUSDR PA11 and Mr Dimitar Chorbadzhiev, Bulgarian Regional Director of Border Police all agree that the DARIF project has achieved very promising results, it can be regarded as a successful initiative and it should be continue.
During the plenary session Mr Béla Vonnák from EUROPOL presented the Danube organised crime threat notice and after that Mr Pjotr S. Suvorov, the Deputy Director-General of the Danube Commission introduced the activities of the commission regarding safety of navigation on the Danube. The project management of the DARIF and its experts regarded the closer cooperation among different priority areas of the EUSDR as a very important task, so Mr Simon Hartl from PA 1a presented the current state of the shipping companies on the Danube and this was taken into account by the law enforcement bodies involved in the DARIF. At the end of the first day, Ms Mónika Herczeg the project manager of the DARIF presented the structure of the project and summed up the achieved results. The main topic of the second day of the Final Conference was the introduction of the DARIF publication that contains the results and conclusions of the project. The expert group coordinators presented the work from their expert groups and the results which are also available in the different chapters of the publication. At the end of the second day participants unanimously adopted the Joint Recommendations that will be the basis for further cooperation in the future.
Participants at expert as well as political level regarded the event and the project as successful initiatives and they expressed their will to continue the cooperation.
Presentations from the Final Conference are available at:http://bmprojektek.kormany.hu/megtartottak-a-darif-projekt-zarokonferenciajat-sikeres-ket-evet-zart-a-belugyminiszterium-nemzetkozi-rendeszeti-projektje
The DARIF publication is available at: http://bmprojektek.kormany.hu/download/b/37/f0000/DARIF publication – Results and Conclusions EN.pdf
