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
Date: 2004-04-29
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: fight against crime, organised crime, private sector, public sector

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Official Journal of the European Union

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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)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

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.

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.

The European Union Strategy for the Beginning of the
New Millennium on the Prevention and Control of Orga-
nised 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.

The recommendations contained in the 2003 EU Orga-
nised Crime Report support partnerships between public
and private organisations as an important approach to
crime prevention.

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.

The outcome of
the conference ‘Tackling Organised
Crime in Partnership’ (20 to 21 November 2003 Dublin)
the European Community's AGIS
co-financed under
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.

if

left unchecked, will

Organised crime,
increasingly
cause serious social and economic harm to Governments
and business while also seriously damaging the quality
of life of citizens.

(8)

(9)

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.

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 orga-
nised crime.

Done at Luxembourg, 29 April 2004.

For the Council

The President

M. McDOWELL

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ANNEX

MODEL PROTOCOL FOR PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS TO REDUCE
THE HARM FROM ORGANISED CRIME

National protocols for partnerships between the public and private sectors could contain, but need not be limited to,
provisions in respect of the following matters:

A. Structure and membership

Regarding the structure and membership of partnerships between the public and private sectors, Member States
could consider inclusion of the following:

National Platform to oversee the partnership process

1. National Platform membership could include appropriate members of law enforcement agencies, members of
industry representative bodies and/or leading firms/companies/industries, consumer organisations, elected public
representatives, officials from relevant government departments and State agencies, representatives of victims
and of non-governmental organisations. If agreed, representatives of university or other research bodies with
expertise in the area of organised crime and its prevention could also be included.

2. The establishment of expert subgroups, which may be industry-specific or specific to particular forms of orga-
nised crime (e.g. counterfeiting), and which would report to the National Platform. The possible need to bridge
knowledge or expertise gaps in areas such as forensic accounting, finance, information technology, etc., could be
an important consideration in this regard.

3. Expert subgroup membership could include members of law-enforcement agencies and members of specific
industry/business representative bodies or major companies operating in the relevant area. Regulatory authorities
could also be included where such exist.

B. Remit and role

a. The remit of the National Platform could be to -

1. facilitate co-operation, contacts, and exchange of information and experience between Member State public

authorities and the private sector,

2. discuss and agree priorities for the expert sub-groups,

3. oversee the work of the expert sub-groups,

4. consider regular progress reports from the expert sub-groups,

5. consider initiatives proposed by the expert sub-groups,

6. devise, on the basis of analysis and discussion of expert sub-group reports, national strategies for the preven-

tion of harm from organised crime.

b. The remit of the expert subgroups could be to —

1. discuss items of mutual concern relevant to the specific industry or business area,

2. develop common intelligence models and share intelligence using those models, taking into consideration
the legal obligations of partners and relevant domestic and international provisions on data protection and
confidentiality,

3. exchange information on specific incidents of crime, and particularly organised crime, suffered by busi-

nesses,

4. exchange information and data collected in the course of Government studies and sectoral vulnerability

studies carried out by industry,

5. agree arrangements for follow-up of exchange of information, including preventative action in the private

sector,

6.

identify means to disseminate best practice throughout the private sector,

7.

identify prevention measures which can be implemented by businesses affected by organised crime,

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8.

identify crime proofing measures which would help protect products and services from the activities of orga-
nised criminals,

9. contribute to the development of economic harm assessments,

10. contribute to the development of public awareness programmes aimed at alerting members of the public to

the dangers of organised crime and means of preventing it,

11.

identify/explore possibilities for reciprocal training courses, e.g., banking procedures for money laundering
investigators,

12. Devise implementation strategies for identified crime prevention measures.

C. Procedures

1. If requested by any party to the National Platform or an expert subgroup, information provided should be
treated as confidential. Information might also be exchanged on the basis of anonymity, e.g., a representative
body could pass on information about one of its members without specifying the name of the business or
person.

2. There should be no sanction for private businesses or industry representatives who wish to pass on information
on crimes suffered by them and which have not previously been reported to the relevant law enforcement agen-
cies, for example, for reasons connected with client confidentiality or credibility.

3. There should be no obligation on any party to the National Platform or an expert subgroup to supply informa-
tion. Exchange of information should be on a voluntary basis but may be used by law enforcement agencies for
investigative purposes;

D. Sectors to be Covered by expert groups

Finance and banking

Information technology and internet

Designer goods

Music industry

Pharmaceutical industry

Motor manufacturing industry

Transport sector,

Armaments industry,

General retail,

Services industry (Entertainment industry, hotels, restaurants),

Tobacco industry and,

Any other relevant sector.