By signing the document, the interior ministers of Croatia, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Kosovo committed themselves to promoting legal frameworks and institutional capacities in criminal analysis and criminal-intelligence work, and to promoting the introduction of the concept of an integrated financial and criminal investigation.
The document also binds the countries to continue investing efforts into establishing a comprehensive system for the protection of witnesses, victims and associates of the judiciary, namely people who have agreed to turn the state's evidence during and after the criminal procedure.
Speaking about the declaration, Croatian Interior Minister Ivica Kirin said it was important not only for the signatory countries, but for all EU member states.
The Croatian minister said that police forces of all European countries as well as intelligence agencies must cooperate because criminals tend to move to another country when threatened in one.