EXCERPTS

Nora Owen, "Actions to Improve Co-operation between EU Member States." Presentation at the Joint Presidency and Finnish Ministry of the Interior Conference, Helsinki, Finland, December 4-5, 1996.

Mrs. Owen served as president of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the Euro- pean Union and is Minister of Justice, Ireland.

[...] Ireland has prioritised action to combat the drugs problem during its Presidency. Under the Justice and Home Affairs area the objective of the Irish Presidency has been to improve external frontier controls and enhance law enforcement and judicial co-operation between Member States. In particular, I am pleased to say that at the Justice and Home Affairs Council last week political agreement was reached on the following measures, which will further these objectives.

�9 Greater co-operation between the customs authorities of Member States and the trade to prevent the importation of illegal drugs to the EU.

�9 Improved procedures for joint customs surveillance operations. �9 Greater co-operation between Police and Customs Authorities of Member States

in combating drug trafficking. �9 The establishment of a Directory of Operational Skills, Training, knowledge and

expertise, complemented by the funding programme. �9 Actions on tackling the drug tourism problem. �9 Action on domestic cultivation and production of drugs. �9 Greater exchange of information between forensic laboratories on the chemical

profiling of drugs seized. This last measure has been complemented by a Drugs Purity indicator System and

the development by the Europol Drugs Unit of a programme of profiling the physical appearance of Ecstasy tablets seized.

Operational co-operation has also been further strengthened and enhanced by the development of networks and operational manuals for the assistance of law enforce- ment authorities. [...]

Reprinted with permission.

EUROPE

Anatoly Kulikov, "Russia + 15." Presentation at the Joint Presidency and Finnish Ministry of the Interior Conference, Hekinki, Finland, December 4-5, 1996.

General Kulikov is Minister of the Interior of the Russian Federation.

[...] At that, the trend to intemationalization of activities of many groups, strengthen- ing of their contacts with foreign criminal elements, and increased scale of laundering criminal proceeds abroad cannot help giving rise to concern. According to the Russian

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