Croatia's Interior Minister Ivica Kirin called for intensified cooperation of countries in the region so as to improve their efficiency in combating all forms of cross-border organised crime.
Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt agreed that the strengthening of cooperation in the region was very important and added that a role of Croatia, as a serious partner of the EU, was to be a bridge between the Union and western Balkan countries.
The ministerial meeting of this kind has been organised every year since the 2003 Thessaloniki meeting when justice and interior ministers agreed on intensifying cooperation in the fight against organised crime.
The Vienna conference was organised by Great Britain, the current chair of the EU, Austria which will chair the European bloc in the next period, and the European Commission.
Before the conference on Thursday evening, Skare Ozbolt was a guest at a ceremony celebrating the 65th birthday of Gerhard Benn-Ibler, the chairman of the Austrian Bar Association. On that occasion she spoke about ongoing reforms in the Croatian judiciary and called on business people to come and invest into her country.