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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia, Norway to sign police cooperation agreement

Belgrade/Oslo, 3 March 2010

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic met today in Oslo with National Police Commissioner of Norway Ingelin Killengreen.

The topics of the meeting were cooperation of the Serbian and Norwegian police and the signing of a police cooperation agreement.

Killengreen said that Norway’s crime rate is very low, but its problems are family violence, human trafficking and drug smuggling.

Dacic said that Norway’s police have been very helpful to Serbia’s police in the past ten years, through various donations and programmes.

These programmes referred to the development of police education, criminal police, policing in the local community, human resources management and data management.

He said that the Serbian and Norwegian ministries of the interior should sign a police cooperation agreement by the end of the year.

Dacic recalled that the police of the two countries carried out many successful operations in which many criminals were arrested. The apprehension of a part of the criminal group Pink Panthers, composed of people from the ex-Yugoslavia region, was especially successful. This operation has been included in a Norwegian police promotional film.

The officials agreed that this successful cooperation should be continued in the future.

Cooperation will also include the training of Serbian police personnel with the Norwegian police, which is one of the best police forces in the world, said Dacic.

Dacic also visited Norway's centralized crime investigation bureau for serious crime, (KRIPOS) which is the first computerised police department of its kind in Europe. In 2003, the Norwegian government invested €3 million in this department.

High tech crime is one of the most highly developed forms of crime today. There are two billion internet users worldwide and it is much more difficult to conduct investigations in the cyber world than in the real one, he said.

Agreement was reached with KRIPOS representatives that Serbian experts will receive training at the centre in order to benefit from the knowledge and expertise of the Norwegian police, he said.

Norway is a leader when it comes to the fight against high tech crime or computer forensics and cooperation in this area is very important for the Serbian police, said Dacic.

Dacic also met today with Norwegian parliament speaker Dag Terje Andersen.

It was stated at the meeting that Serbia and Norway should also cooperate at parliamentary level and intensive parliamentary contacts can be expected soon.

There are groups in both countries that work to facilitate good relations and the memory of the Second World War prisoners who spent time there is still alive, Dacic said.

There are also many other links between various cities in Serbia and Norway and these ties should be used to improve political, economic and cultural cooperation, said the Deputy Prime Minister.