Associate Director of the Criminal police Directorate Rajko Kozmelj, M.Sc., attended on 10 and 11 July 2008 a two-day session of the extended troika of the European Police Chiefs' Task Force - EPCTF in Paris. Besides him, the meeting was attended by Marjan Farič from the EPCTF supporting unit based in the Hague.

At this year's session of the extended EPCTF Troika held for the first time under the French Presidency of the EU Council, the Slovenian delegation supported the new proposed working methods in EPCTF. It agreed with the findings of the French Presidency that EPCTF must establish a key coordination role, and proposed a new beginning of the discussion on the potential legal effects and the consequences of the new Lisbon Strategy for the future role of the Police Chiefs Task Force.

Rajko Kozmelj, M.Sc., presented some of the most important achievements of the Slovenian presidency to the EPCTF: "Our principal commitment was to continue and complete the programme of the 18-month work of the presiding troika started by Germany and continued by Portugal. The principal goals of the Slovenian Presidency included the implementation of the provisions of the Hague Programme, action plans of the Council and the Commission for the implementation of the Hague Programme, strategies in the fields of justice and home affairs, and EU action plans for the fight against terrorism and illicit drugs. In the process, we relied on the findings of OCTA 2008 and the findings, policies and conclusions of the Ministerial Council of Justice and Home Affairs." As stressed by Kozmelj, the Slovenian Presidency, working in close cooperation with the SECI Centre and Europol, prepared everything for the assessment of the risk of organised crime in the South-Eastern Europe, supported a more intense exploitation of the Europol Information System (IS) and accelerated the discussion on the effect of new technologies on the police work. "At the initiative of the Slovenian Presidency, the EPCTF was presented the implementation of the action plan for the fight against terrorism," added Kozmelj.

The session in Paris was attended by police chiefs and their alternates from the countries presiding the EU before France (Slovenia, Germany and Portugal), and the countries taking over the Presidency after France (Czech Republic and Sweden). In addition, the meeting was attended by the representatives of Europol, General Secretariat of the EU Council and the representatives of the European Commission.