OSCE Presence in Albania supports parliamentary co-operation in fight against organized crime

TIRANA, 12 April 2006 - Promoting regional co-operation among South-East European parliamentarians in the fight against organized crime was the focus of a two-day workshop that ended today in Tirana.

Co-organized by the OSCE Presence in Albania, the event attracted 27 parliamentarians from Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro as well as representatives of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo.

Participants discussed the experiences and roles of parliaments and their interaction with the executive and judiciary, the efforts of international organizations, the importance of international legal instruments and regional co-operation among legislative, judiciary and enforcement bodies. They also agreed on a draft document that lists 10 points to guide parliaments in their fight against organized crime.

"Fighting organized crime is a priority of the Belgian OSCE Chairmanship and the workshop has been our contribution to the OSCE-wide efforts," said Ambassador Pavel Vacek, Head of the OSCE Presence. "We are happy that the workshop has given an impulse to a closer co-operation among the region's legislators but also of the international organizations and structures."

Workshop initiator Hubert Pirker, a member of the European Parliament and former chair of the Stability Pact Initiative against Organized Crime, stressed that parliaments are crucial in seeing to that the fight against organized crime gets enough resources from state budgets.

The workshop was jointly organized by the Stability Pact Initiative against Organized Crime, the Political Academy of the Austrian People's Party, the Albanian Assembly and co-financed by the Austrian Development Agency.