Deputy Prosecutor General Mariya Pavlova participated in a meeting of the Executive Board of the Permanent Conference of Organised Crime Prosecutors, which is being held on October 26-27, 2023 in Sofia.
Since September 2022, the presidency of the Permanent Conference of Organised Crime Prosecutors Secretariat has been taken over by Sofia Prosecutor's Office of Appeal (SAP), represented by Deputy Appellate Prosecutor Galya Marinova and prosecutor Irina Armenova.
Mariya Pavlova welcomed the forum participants and pointed out that focusing on the problems of organized crime is especially important when the public attention is almost entirely pushed into the field of foreign policy. “Without the public attention and the systematic methods of influene, organized crime grows continuously. Drug smuggling, cybercrime, excise fraud, illegal migrant trafficking, human trafficking, growing transnational nature of terrosrism pose increasingly serious challenges to the law enforcement authorities in Europe”, said Deputy Prosecutor General.
She emphasized that achieving significant results in the investigation, detection and disrupting of criminal networks is possible only with large-scale efforts focused on building a functioning system of communication and interaction
The meeting was attended by magistrates from Greece, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro etc.
During the forum, prosecutor Galya Marinova will present the results of the Conference Secretariat’s work in the last eight months.
The participants also discussed the need to strengthen cooperation in the execution of mutual legal assistance requests in the context of the national legislation of each of the member states. The growing risks of cyber threats, terrorist attacks, as well as overcoming the challenges posed by illegal migration were also commented on.
A Declaration of Intent was also signed, which marks the accession of Republic of Austria to the Conference.
The Permanent Conference of Organised Crime Prosecutors carries out its activity with the support of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Currently, members of the Conference are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.