North Macedonia enhances inter-agency co-operation and develops new approaches to disrupt the financing of terrorism

On 6 October, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, in co-operation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and with the support of the OSCE Mission to Skopje, organized a train-the-trainer course aimed at improving the skills of officials from North Macedonia to disrupt terrorist groups through the application of financial tools.

During the three-day course in Vienna, a team of selected trainers from the Republic of North Macedonia’s Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Financial Intelligence Office, and the Agency for National Security and the Customs Administration, examined and further developed the exercise-based training material together with OSCE lead experts. The inter-agency team studied the ‘business model’ of terrorist networks and learned how to apply techniques, including auditing and vulnerability analysis, to disrupt the financing of terrorism.

As part of a comprehensive training programme, organized with the financial support of the United States, the experts taking part in the initiative, jointly with the lead trainers, will go on to deliver this course to their peers from relevant state authorities involved in countering terrorist financing.

The multi-year programme aims to further strengthen North Macedonia’s Combating the Financing of Terrorism framework, increase the country’s capacity to detect and combat terrorist financing and strengthen compliance with relevant UN Security Council Resolutions, Financial Action Task Force standards, and OSCE commitments.