The four-day event, which gathered representatives of police and prosecutors' offices from 19 European countries, was opened by Croatian and Bavarian police directors Marijan Benko and Waldemar Kindler respectively. Kindler expressed hope that the Zagreb meeting would contribute to more efficient measures of protection of the euro, which he said would also strengthen economic stability and the confidence of the public in the euro.
The conference is also attended by representatives of the European Commission, EUROJUST, EUROPOL, Interpol, the European Central Bank, the US Secret Service and the Croatian National Bank.
Croatian police director Benko said that Croatia had taken a number of measures to adjust its legislation related to fighting organised crime to the EU legislation.
He said that Croatia had been entrusted with co-organising the conference because of its good international cooperation and successful operations in combating banknote forgery this and last year. He recalled an operation conducted in cooperation with Austrian police in July, when 1,196,500 worth of counterfeit euro banknotes was seized, which so far is the biggest seized amount in Europe.
The Zagreb conference will discuss police and judicial measures aimed at fighting the forgery of euro banknotes as well as the forgery of euro coins.