EN Official Journal of the European Union C 116/20

COUNCIL RESOLUTION

of 29 April 2004

on a Model Protocol for the establishment in Member States of partnerships between the public and private sectors to reduce the harm from organised crime

(2004/C 116/07)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Whereas:

(1) One of the European Union's objectives is to provide citizens with a high level of safety within an area of freedom security and justice.

(2) That objective shall be achieved by preventing and combating organised crime through closer cooperation between police forces and other competent authorities in the Member States.

(3) The European Union Strategy for the Beginning of the New Millennium on the Prevention and Control of Organised Crime and, in particular Chapter 2.3 thereof, calls for strengthening the prevention of organised crime and strengthening partnerships between the criminal justice system and civil society.

(4) The recommendations contained in the 2003 EU Organised Crime Report support partnerships between public and private organisations as an important approach to crime prevention.

(5) Recommendation 8 of the Final Report of the Second Round of Mutual Evaluations calls on Member States to consider the development of instruments that would facilitate formal agreements between law enforcement agencies and private companies.

(6) The outcome of the conference ‘Tackling Organised Crime in Partnership’ (20 to 21 November 2003 Dublin) co-financed under the European Community's AGIS programme and developed through a partnership of the incoming Irish and Dutch Presidencies of the Council with the support of Europol and the Commission also addresses this matter.

(7) Organised crime, if left unchecked, will increasingly cause serious social and economic harm to Governments and business while also seriously damaging the quality of life of citizens.

(8) The whole of society has a stake in preventing the advance and infiltration of organised crime and it must be tackled at local, national and EU levels.

(9) The private and public sectors share a common interest in jointly developing ways to identify and prevent the incidence of harm from the activities of organised crime. Partnership arrangements in the fight against organised crime are already in place or underway in different ways in some Member States and have yielded positive results. Such arrangements include partnerships between the public and private sectors which operate successfully on an informal basis.

(10) The partnership arrangements provided for in the context of this resolution shall not affect the legal and regulatory obligations which fall on the private sector with regard to the fight against organised crime and, in particular, the fight against money laundering.

(11) The successful partnership structures in the customs area have led to increased intelligence and reduced costs for business,

HEREBY ENCOURAGES Member State Governments

to promote the use where appropriate, of the model protocol set out in the Annex to this Resolution, by their competent authorities that wish to establish or develop partnerships between the public and private sectors, based on mutual trust and a common objective of reducing the harm caused by organised crime.

Done at Luxembourg, 29 April 2004. For the Council The President M. McDOWELL