The project was launched in June 2006 and will be completed in December 2007. It aims to provide support to institutions combating money laundering in Croatia through, among other things, improved international cooperation and a more effective legal framework.
The meeting heard that the fight against money laundering and sources of funding of terrorism required close cooperation of all state institutions, as well as cooperation with the international community.
Despite the improvement of legislation and strengthening of institutions in Croatia, only three final court judgements have been handed down for money laundering in the past five years, which shows that there is a lot of work to be done, the head of the European Commission Delegation to Croatia, Vincent Degert, said at the meeting.
Degert said that the EU had been encouraging Croatia to fight money laundering through a series of other projects aimed at strengthening the capacities of the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) and the police, preventing drug trafficking and the like.
Chief Public Prosecutor Mladen Bajic said that his office was aware that it would not be able to fight organised crime without effectively combating money laundering and seizing illegally gained assets.
Bajic said that the progress made in detecting cases of money laundering was partly due to the amending of Croatian laws. He called on Croatian authorities to transpose some other European regulations dealing with this problem into Croatian legislation.
Austria will serve as a mentor to Croatia in implementing the project, which also includes the fight against sources of funding of terrorism, organised crime and serious financial crimes in general.