In the great hall of the Ministry of the Interior in Ljubljana, the Agreement on Mutual Cooperation between the Customs Administration and the Police was signed today, 12 March 2008.
The Agreement was signed by Director General of the Police Jože Romšek and Director General of the Customs Administration of the Republic of Slovenia Rajko Skubic. The two directors thanked each other for their readiness and cooperation, hoping for as much success as possible in future.
At this occasion, Director General Romšek said in his address that during the last years the Slovenian police had put much effort into cooperating with various institutions, among others with the customs service. He was certain, he added, that the common concern and objective of both services was to be as successful as much as possible in assuring safety to all citizens and to all others living in the Republic of Slovenia.
The first agreement was concluded in 2003; however, needs dictated preparation of a new agreement in the last year, which was prepared according to the guidelines of the Council of the European Union and the provisions of the International Convention on the Harmonisation of Frontier Control of Goods.
The police and the customs administration are cooperating at state, local and regional levels. The modes of cooperation are joint working meetings, appointment of contact persons, exchanging data and information, providing technical and other support, planning common actions and combinations thereof, joint training and coordination of other forms of work. The novelty of the new agreement is assuring access to all agreed data evidence, while respecting regulations regarding data protection.
In the past, especially after entry into the common European space, the Slovenian Police and the Slovenian Customs Administration performed many successful activities in the area of preventing smuggling of goods. The new agreement opens new possibilities for further cooperation.
The Director General of the Customs Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, Rajko Skubic, said that was hard for the customs service to perform their work without the cooperation of other public authorities, primarily with the police. "The majority of people know us as the authority which assures that certain duties are performed relative to foreign trade and less as the authority assuring safety. Together with the Slovenian Police, the Slovenian Customs Administration is strongly involved in preventing unlawful drug trafficking; we influence trade in dangerous substances that may harm the people's health and pollute the environment," he added.
Both directors expect improvement of the performance of both services, in particular in assuring people's safety.
Aleksander Jevšek, the Director of the Criminal Police Directorate, and Danijel Žibret, the Director of the Uniformed Police Directorate, were also present at the signing of the agreement