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Representatives of the Slovenian Police attended yesterday and today, 22 and 23 May 2008, a conference organised by the Croatian Police in Opatija and intended for police leadership to meet prior to the summer tourist season.

In addition to the Slovenian delegation, including the head of the Office of the Director-General of Police, Bojan Matevžič, and the Slovenian Police Attaché in Croatia, Jože Sironič, the conference was attended by representatives of the nine countries making up the largest portion of tourism in Croatia, as well as Interpol representatives.

At the conference, the participants got acquainted with the safety situation in Croatia during the last tourist season and the preparations for this year's season in the area of road traffic safety and crime, as well as border police. The representatives of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia signed an agreement on cooperation, on the basis of which police officers from these countries, together with Croatian police officers, will do road patrols during this year's tourist season in Croatia. In their national uniforms but without carrying weapons, they will, together with Croatian colleagues, try to make communication with tourists from their countries easier. The agreement should be subsequently signed by France, while Italy intends to sign it in the next summer season.

The management of the French Police stated that France itself will, on the model of its Croatian colleagues, introduce such cooperation with neighbouring countries on the basis of the Prüm Treaty, so that the representatives of Spanish, Dutch, German and Belgian police will help French police officers in the most popular tourist places in France: Lourdes and Paris. They plan to evaluate in the fall whether such cooperation was successful. Based on the results achieved, they will decide whether to continue this form of cooperation in the future.

At the conference, the head of the Office of the Director General of the Slovenian Police, Bojan Matevžič, presented the preparations and tasks of the Slovenian Police in order to ensure safety during this year's summer tourist season. On this occasion, the Director of the Croatian Police, Marijan Benko, thanked the Slovenian Police for its good cooperation so far and expressed his wish that in the next year Slovenia would join the agreement already signed by Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.