Sundsvall, 21/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - The time has come to achieve, at Community level, a "common programme, clearly defined, for the prevention of organised crime", asserted Thomas Bodstrom, Swedish Minister for Justice, when opening, on 21 February in Sundsvall, a conference on the theme "Towards a prevention strategy for organised crime based upon knowledge".
The conference, which follows on from the recommendations made by the Tampere European Council of October 1999, gathers together around 230 experts from the European Union Member States, as well as observers from all the EU accession candidate countries, from Norway, Iceland, Russia and the United States which, for three days, will exchange their points of view over respective experiences and methods in terms of the fight against organised crime. Its results will be useful for the discussion over the Union level organised crime prevention programme that Mr Bodstrom intends to organise during the next meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council, on 15 March in Brussels. The Swedish President wants "a modern policy" to fight against organised crime in the EU, in which the prevention measures will have as important a role as repression, said the Council President, who underlines the need to create a structure allowing to simplify this prevention work. Thus, he hopes that it will be possible to rapidly decide over the establishment in the EU of an organised crime prevention network whose main task will consists of providing the Member States and Commission with expert opinions in this matter, and to promote information and experience exchanges between Member States.