Joint declaration by the Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs of the Member States of the European Union and the candidate countries in association with the European Commission on the protection of commercial drivers engaged in export trade from becoming victims of organised crime

(2003/C 24/02)

We, the Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs of the Member States of the European Union in association with the European Commission, and we, the Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs of Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania and Turkey, the former hereinafter referred to as Member States of the European Union and the latter referred to as the candidate countries, having met in Luxembourg on 14 October 2002,

WHEREAS:

(1) Providing our citizens with a high level of safety by developing common action to prevent and to combat crime, organised or otherwise, is a shared objective of our countries.

(2) One of the most important tasks of actors in this area, including law enforcement authorities and crime prevention units in all European countries is to protect and safeguard all exposed groups in society and the position of such groups should be paid special heed by the authorities.

(3) Vehicles engaged in export trade are an easy target for property crime in the eyes of many criminal organisations owing to the high-value goods which they often carry and the low level of manning and protection which they usually enjoy.

(4) Commercial drivers engaged in export trade do in terms of the risk of falling victim to serious crime form an exposed group whose security requires special precautions.

(5) Trade and transportation between the countries of Europe is of the highest importance in securing the economic and political development in the region.

(6) The security of commercial drivers engaged in export trade is a shared concern of Member States and candidate countries and an adequate level of security for drivers requires that the problems be uniformly addressed by Member States and candidate countries owing to the transnational nature of the export trade.

EXPRESS OUR DETERMINATION TO:

1. Ensure that appropriate measures are taken so that commercial drivers engaged in export trade do not fall victims of organised crime;

2. Ensure that the necessary protection against organised property crime and violent assaults is provided to this group;

3. Raise awareness of the development in these types of crimes and as appropriate conduct national or international surveys in order to map the incidents of crime directed at commercial drivers engaged in export trade and investigate the nature and scale of the problem and the background to it in their respective countries;

4. Initiate the appropriate measures to fight these types of crimes and - based on the estimated nature and scale of the problem and the outcome of conducted surveys - particularly consider the need to

(a) improve security on sections of road and parking sites generally and especially in the problem areas identified, including by stepping up the presence and visibility of law enforcement officials on the relevant roads and sites;

(b) undertake specific crime prevention initiatives in this area, as appropriate, but in particular by increasing the involvement of the relevant law enforcement authorities in the location and design of safe sites, in conjunction with increasing the number of supervised parking sites manned around the clock;

(c) keep central statistics on reports, charges and convictions with regard to violent attacks on drivers in order to continuously make actions in this field more targeted and effective;

(d) take further steps to ensure that law enforcement authorities are alert to any links between attacks in several countries and in that connection, in accordance with national law, and existing international agreements exchange information as widely as possible with the relevant authorities in other countries and generally step up cross-border cooperation to prevent and tackle the problem.