The purpose of the 18-month project, financed by the European Commission, has been to strengthen the ability of the Croatian interior ministry in the fight against organized crime, especially in the field of combating drugs trafficking and drugs abuse. Its purpose has also been to contribute to the Accession Partnership/Stabilisation and Association Agreement/National Programme for the Integration of the Republic of Croatia into the EU, to enhance the ability of criminal police officers in the area of combating drugs trafficking and drugs abuse, to strengthen the institutional capacities of the Forensic Science Centre "Ivan Vucetic" in the area of drugs analysis and to establish a National Contact Point for the transmission of synthetic drugs samples and data exchange with other Forensic Science Centres on profiling synthetic drugs.
Representatives of the twinning partners, the Austrian Ministry of the Interior and the Austrian Criminal Investigation Service and the Croatian Ministry of the Interior presented the results of the project.
Austrian Ambassador in Croatia, Jan Kickert, expressed hope in the continuation of successful cooperation between the countries so that Croatia might become a modern European country. He recalled that Austria was one of the first countries to recognise Croatia's independence.