EU Crime Fighting Week: Working Together to Fight Transregional Organised Crime

Over 250 participants from around the world gathered in Brussels to take stock of the ever-evolving transregional organised crime (TOC) threat, providing a unique opportunity for collaboration between different actors and initiatives working to counter TOC at regional, trans-regional and global levels.

Altogether, 16 panels were organised during the Crime Fighting Week. Around 100 speakers and moderators covered a broad range of important issues from environmental crime to the diversion of firearms from conflict zones, from promoting women in law enforcement to the role of technology, and from the role of human rights and civil society to the links between organised crime and terrorism.

"International cooperation is essential to counter organised crime. The Crime Fighting Week is a great opportunity to bring together diverse stakeholders from across the globe to connect, share knowledge and strengthen our cooperation to tackle the huge challenges that organised crime poses to our societies,” underlined Maria Rosa Sabbatelli, Head of Unit dealing with global and trans-regional threats at the European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI). 

The EU Crime Fighting Week leveraged the role of political leadership in addressing drug trafficking in Africa with the participation of H.E. Kgalema Motlanthe, Former President of South Africa and H.E. Joaquim Chissano, Former President of Mozambique, who focused on the work of the East and Southern African Commission on Drugs (ESACD).

The Crime Fighting Week also hosted Latin American experts, representatives of Iraq, Tajikistan and many other countries who shared their insights and best practices with the participants on their national policies and international cooperation experiences. For example, heads of police analytical units from 6 different African countries reflected on the role of analysis and intelligence in the fight against organised crime as relevant to their national contexts, covering experiences in human, narcotics and arms trafficking. The importance of coordination platforms and opportunities to ensure a cross-border response was highlighted as a key contribution from the FPI support.

The EU’s main programme in the fight against TOC, the Global Illicit Flows Programme (GIFP), was represented in the Crime Fighting Week by the team leaders of its actions. They presented good practices from the support provided throughout the years in strengthening transregional capacities of law enforcement and prosecuting services to combat organised crime globally. The GIFP team leaders shared their experience and knowledge from the field on combating environmental crime, on law enforcement-led operations, on organised crime and drug trafficking in Africa, links between organised crime and terrorism, transnational investigations and prosecutions.

The week presented an opportunity to increase knowledge and strengthen coordinated responses to organised crime between practitioners, policy makers and academia, among others. The EU Crime Fighting Week also hosted several side events, including the EU-LAC Foundation meeting on illicit maritime trade, the EMPACT High Risk Criminal Networks priority Operational Actions on organised crime in Africa and links between organised crime and terrorism. 

To learn more about the EU-funded Global Illicit Flows Programme (GIFP), download the latest GIFP brochure here.