PREFACE the Influence of Organised Crime in the Balkan Area, As Is Well

PREFACE The influence of organised crime in the Balkan area, as is well known, has reached levels that have required a considerable acceleration in efforts to combat this phenomenon. Albania is involved in many initiatives set up by the international community, which are matched by efforts at national level. In 2005, the Democratic Party achieved a decisive victory in the political elections with the support of its allies, making a commitment to reduce crime and corruption in the country. This victory, and more importantly the ordered transition of power which followed it, has been regarded at international level as an important step forward towards the confirmation of democracy. Despite the active presence of organised criminal groups over the territorial area and the influence exercised by them in the country's already critical social and economic situation, Albania, recognising the need to bring its legislation up to date and to strengthen the institutions responsible for fighting crime, has moved with determination in the direction of reform. With regard to bringing the legislation into line with international standards, we should remember that in 2002 Albania ratified the United Nations Convention against Trans National Organised Crime (UNTOC) and the relative additional protocols preventing the smuggling of migrants and trafficking of human beings. In February 2008 it also ratified the third and final protocol on arms trafficking. Since 1995, Albania has been a member country of the Council of Europe; in 2001 it became a member of the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) and in 2006 it also ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). The European Council Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings and the Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds of Crime came into force in early 2008, both of which had been signed in 2007. Against this background of important legislative changes, but also of rapid growth and continual transformation of transnational organised crime, the training activity carried out by UNICRI has responded to the need expressed by Albania to be able to benefit directly from the best international and Italian experience, posing as a first objective the need to respond more effectively, and in a coordinated manner, to the threat posed by organised crime. This publication describes a training programme devised on the basis of the specific situation in Albania. The innovative approach adopted has made it possible to establish a close and effective dialogue on each aspect, promoting the exchange of technical and practical experiences and encouraging constructive debate. We believe that the distinguishing feature of our work is also to bring about effective and tangible results, not only in the training sector but also in other areas falling within our mandate. This feature is the capacity to act as interlocutors who are attentive and receptive towards the priority needs of a country in the sphere of justice reform, without ever putting forward pre-established models or adopting methods that are not solidly based on prior research and study in the areas in which our involvement has been requested. Sandro Calvani Director UNICRI UNICRI – Seminar in Tirana, 15 March 2007 Giusto Sciacchitano Substitute National Prosecutor, Italian National Anti-Mafia Directorate, DNA 1.1. International judicial cooperation and the creation of a common legal jurisdiction of security and justice. EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. European Charter of Human Rights § 1. Community Law The subject that I have been given (legal jurisdiction and European justice) relates to one of the highest and most ambitious objectives of the European Union and of such a nature as to profoundly effect the constitutional arrangement of the Member States as well as the relationships currently existing between them and the European Union. Common legal jurisdiction in fact means that one and the same civil or criminal law is brought into force in Europe, and not simply similar regulations introduced by individual countries. Common legal jurisdiction means recognising immediately and automatically the value throughout Europe of a judgement or a judicial ruling issued by a judge in any Member Country whatsoever. The real value of these propositions is revolutionary in comparison with the traditional system of international judicial collaboration: they overcome the traditional concepts and principles of collaboration that are still founded on relationships between states and therefore on the willingness of states to give reciprocal assistance in criminal matters. This traditional system of assistance provides that two states, even with different legal, social and political traditions, decide to collaborate on particular subjects and for that purpose they enter into bi- or multi-lateral treaties which indicate the methods by which the collaboration is to be carried out, and without prejudice to all of the state prerogatives of sovereignty and sole jurisdiction. In criminal law, the two main methods of collaboration are the letter of request and extradition. With the European treaties, there is now a firmly established sharing of principles of freedom, justice, security, human rights and the knowledge that these principles are truly guaranteed to all citizens in the geo-political area of Europe (Treaty of Maastricht – art. 6); The European countries forming part of this new Union can therefore begin to overcome the traditional methods of collaboration between different States, being able to form the view that judicial collaboration now takes place within a new entity and therefore with procedures that take accout of the different political reality. This objective, which has not yet been completely achieved, has gradually been identified as the new European Community was able to achieve further goals and to become aware of new requirements and needs in order to tackle new challenges. One of these was, and is, that of transnational organised crime. § 2. Transnational organised crime Organised crime has been radically modified over recent years. Alongside what we can call traditional organised crime, because it is rooted in a certain area with branches and contacts with other organisations (the Sicilian mafia, the Colombian cartels and other similar organisations) there is what is now called Transnational Organised Crime. This is formed by groups of people from various different countries, of different ethnic backgrounds, brought together no longer by common origin but rather by a common interest and who operate in several countries at the same time. Such groups operate in the vast area that spreads from Albania and the Balkans, throughout Central Eastern Europe and to Russia. All illegal traffic managed by organised crime passes in this way – drugs, weapons, human trafficking, illegal immigration, stolen cars, laundering of money of illegal origin, strategic assets such as energy resources and still more. In the same area there is also crime of oriental origin, which finds support that I will describe below. Drug smuggling, human trafficking and illegal immigration are, as is well known, at the top of the list of profits earned by organised crime. So far as drugs is concerned, Albania is today one of the major terminals in the routes for heroin and cocaine; Poland is among the main world producers of synthetic drugs, and in particular methamphetamine; the Balkan route, after the end of the war in that region, has been reactivated in three subdivisions: the north (which passes through Ukraine, Romania and Hungary); the classic central area (which from Turkey passes through Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia) and the south (which through Turkey and Greece reaches Italy by sea). Europol estimates that each year 250 tons of cocaine are transported from countries along the Andes towards Europe by sea or air, and the main arrival points are in Western Europe (Spain, Holland, Italy, Great Britain) as well as Central-Eastern Europe and Albania, awaiting distribution among the various EU countries.1 With regard to human trafficking, surveys show that this is similar to drug trafficking in a certain way; the criminal activity begins in the country of origin of the victim, (usually in an Eastern country), it proceeds into other Countries where the woman is sold to other criminal organisations and subjected to physical and psychological violence (country of transit); it is completed in the country of destination (Western European country) where she is forced into prostitution or other labour. Thus it had become apparent that the phenomenon of organised crime had reached alarming dimensions and that it had become so well integrated into the organisational structures of many countries that it had become a serious risk for the very security of these countries; this meant that the risk concerned society in general and therefore that the campaign against such a risk was no longer the responsibility of individual countries but of the EU itself. The fight against organised crime therefore became a political as well as a technical and legal problem to the extent in which the Union placed it among the objectives to be pursued through its own organs. § 3. Constitutive treaties and community documents in relation to crime The beginning of this new policy can be found in the Treaty of Maastricht (7 February 1992). Article K 1 establishes, for the first time, that for the purposes of achieving the objectives

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