Eduard Liedgens, leader of the Pericles programme for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting, which the Council of the EU launched in December 2001, was speaking after a four-day international conference on measures for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting.
Liedgens said the conference had been significant because concrete measures were agreed to suppress the counterfeiting of coins, a widespread form of crime in Central Europe.
He commended the work of Croatian institutions in the suppression of counterfeiting, underlining that the central bank fully met European standards.
Liedgens said euro counterfeiting could be fought only through international cooperation.
Europol representative Michael Rauschenbach said the euro was a well protected and safer currency than the previous national currencies in the euro zone.
Citing Croatian Interior Ministry figures, crime police chief Darko Dundovic said euro counterfeiting was on the rise, with 92 cases registered in this year's first six months as against 68 in the first half of 2005.
Since the euro was introduced in 2002, some 350,000 counterfeit coins have been seized, of which 96,000 last year, the conference heard.
The event gathered police and state prosecution representatives from 19 European countries, Europol, the European Commission, Eurojust, Interpol, the European Central Bank, the US Secret Service, and the Croatian National Bank.