The Launching Workshop of the SIRENE Project. The Croatian Police Starts Preparing the SIRENE Office

On January 27th in Zagreb in the amphitheatre of the Direction General of the Croatian Police, the Project PHARE 2006 Twinning Light Preparing the Establishment of the Sirene Office was inaugurated. This office emerged after the opening of borders, from the need to control the circulation of people and goods in the Schengen area. The office deals with collecting, analysing and forwarding data regarding the crimes committed in the various countries by inserting these in the SIS I databank, so as to monitor illegal actions which take place in the Schengen area.
The project beneficiary to which the SIRENE office will be established, is the Direction of the Criminal Police - Department of International Police Cooperation. The project value amounts to 130 thousand euros. Mr Vladimir Faber opened the event by expressing his fulfilment for the start-up of the project activities and by emphasizing that together with the Italian partner, the following results have to be achieved: elaboration of the proposal on the legislative and human resource functioning of the office, training needs assessment of future functionaries from the office and development of the awareness-raising plan on the role and meaning of the SIRENE office. Mr Faber hopes that the other central Croatian public administrations which are indirectly involved in the project, namely the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance – the Customs Office and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, will take active part in the initiative. The Italian  project leader, Mr Claudio Schettini, outlined the project and the activities to be carried out in the following 5 months. The Italian Ambassador Morano di Custoza highlighted the strengthening of bilateral cooperation liaisons between Italy and Croatia. One of the Croatian Government objectives is to enhance international police cooperation. The establishment of the S.I.R.E.N.E office will lead Croatia to more strongly cooperate with EU Member States both in the sphere of border surveillance which will be EU external borders as soon as Croatia will become a member State, and the common work regarding the research system at EU level.
The Director General of the Croatian Police, Mr Vladimir Faber, the Head of the Direction for European Integration and International Relations of the Croatian Ministry of the Interior, Mr Filip Dragović, the Head of the European Commission Delegation in Croatia, Mr Vincent Degert, the Italian Ambassador in Croatia, Mr Alesandro Pignatti Morano di Custoza, the Croatian and Italian project leaders, Mr Marijo Rošić and Mr Claudio Schettini, General Antonio Sessa and Colonel Giuseppe Lanzillotti from the Italian Ministry of the Interior, the contact functionary for police cooperation Italy-Croatia, Mr Gianni Baldi, Ms Natasa Margetic from Formez and many other directors and representatives from Croatian ministries and State offices, took part in the launching seminar.