The delegations of the Slovenian and Croatian Police met in Metlika today, 4 June 2008, headed by the Director General of the Police Jože Romšek and General Director of the Croatian Police Marijan Benko.

They pointed to the excellent cooperation of both police directorates to date in all areas of work. The General Director of the Croatian Police particularly thanked the Director General of the Slovenian Police for their latest successful endeavour in preventing economic crime, which was also echoed in Croatia.

Representatives of the Slovenian and Croatian Police discussed joint cooperation during the tourist season, during the soccer championships in Austria and Switzerland, and their cooperation in the prevention and combating of crime.

In addition to Director General of the Police Jože Romšek, the Slovenian delegation also included Director of the Uniformed Police Directorate Danijel Žibret, Director of the Criminal Police Directorate Aleksander Jevšek, Director of the Police Directorate of Novo Mesto Anton Olaj, Head of the International Relations Division Vladimir Pocek, Head of the Service of the Director General of the Police Bojan Matevžič, and Police Attaché to Croatia Jože Sironič.

The Croatian Police were represented by General Director of the Croatian Police Marijan Benko and his deputies Ivan Nadž and Jakob Bukvić, as well as the Head of the Service of the General Police Director, Dubravka Novak. The Croatian delegation also consisted of Chief of the Police Directorate Marko Rašić, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Police Directorate Boris Spudić and the Head of the Public Relations Office and International Police Cooperation and Intelligence Analysis, Krunoslav Borovec.

The delegations highlighted problems regarding road traffic safety, which could become aggravated with the expected increase in traffic. The numerous renovation and maintenance works during the tourist season will have a significant effect on traffic flow. As highlighted by Danijel Žibret, Director of the Uniformed Police Directorate, the urgent intensive cooperation of the police of both countries and operative-communications centres on the regional level are needed to decrease waiting times on roads and border crossings.

Marko Rašić, Head of the Police Directorate, acquainted the Slovenian delegates with the new Road Transport Safety Act, which is to come into effect in Croatia in the next few days, and envisaged measures for effectively implementing the law - drastic increases in fines and consistent penalising of drivers exceeding the speed limit and driving under the influence of alcohol.

Another topic of discussion was also the cooperation of the criminal police of both countries. Aleksander Jevšek, MSc assessed that cooperation between the Criminal Police Directorate of Slovenia and the Croatian criminal police has always been excellent, especially in the exchange of experience, criminal data and operative information. Croatia ranks as the country with which Slovenia exchanges the most criminal data on a daily basis. Last year, over 1230 documents were exchanged between the International Police Cooperation Section and Croatia. Active cooperation between the countries is characteristic of all crime areas, especially regarding joint investigations of criminal acts involving illicit drugs.

The Deputy General Director of the Croatian Police, Ivan Nadž, thanked the Slovenian Police for its expert help in the previous year and congratulated them on their professional chairing of the meeting of the European Police Chiefs Task Force Support Unit which took place at the end of May in The Hague. International cooperation of the criminal police is extremely important due to the international characteristics of organised crime, thus the exchange of operative data contributes to the success of both the Slovenian and Croatian Police.

The representatives of the Slovenian and Croatian Police also discussed the approaching EURO 2008soccer championship, which will take place in Austria and Switzerland from 7 to 29 July 2008. They discussed the transit of soccer fans, external border surveillance, measures within Slovenia and the effective exchange of data among Croatian and Slovenian security authorities. The Croatian authorities will thereby provide notification via established international channels for the exchange of police data, such as Interpol, to the Slovenian Police on findings regarding the movement of groups of foreign soccer fans, while police border stations will give notification on the arrival of fans at their border crossings.