The Minister of Internal Affairs, Catalin Predoiu, had a meeting with the British Ambassador in Bucharest, Giles Matthew Portman, on Friday, with the discussions between the two having focused on topics of interest to both sides, mainly the measures that must be taken for combating cross-border organized crime.

According to a press release from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI), sent to AGERPRES, the efficiency of police action to face the new challenges of criminality, including through institutional reform measures, was another topic addressed.

Predoiu evoked the very good cooperative relations between the two states, as well as the existing premises for their development, under the umbrella of the Romanian-British Strategic Partnership.

„The good practices identified as a result of bilateral police cooperation can be the basis of new cooperation initiatives, necessary to manage, in a coordinated manner, the new trends of the criminal phenomenon. Both sides pay special attention to the security component, being strongly engaged in the joint effort to identify effective solutions to combat the various scourges of transnational organized crime”, the cited source shows.

The minister of the Interior highlighted that border protection is a priority subject for Romania, the purpose of which is to strengthen and protect the space without internal border controls. „Measures taken to reduce illegal border crossings, to limit secondary movements and to make the return system more efficient have led to decreases on all levels of indicators regarding crimes related to illegal migration. In addition, new effective tools have been implemented to facilitate the process of identification of people”, emphasizes Predoiu.

In this context, the cited source informs, both Romania and Great Britain must be prepared to cooperate even more to identify solid solutions for the multiple challenges that the European Union and the UK must face.

The British ambassador highlighted the importance given by the UK to issues related to combating the flow of cash from crimes. States must quickly identify solutions for countering reinvestment actions of the product resulting from criminal activities in the licit circuit. The Romanian official pointed out that this topic is of interest, as it is important to coagulate the efforts of all the relevant actors involved in order to make the activity of the competent institutions more efficient, the MAI press release informs.

AGERPRES