Politics

It is noted that the establishment and operation of the Contact Center is an implementation of the Greece-Albania Bilateral Agreement signed on 18-01-2021.

The operation of the Center is aimed at the exchange of information between the competent law enforcement authorities, at the regional level, and at the practical upgrading of border cooperation in the control of cross-border organized crime and illegal immigration.

Main areas of information sharing will mainly be illegal immigration, human trafficking, violent extremism and terrorism, falsification of travel documents, illegal drug, firearms and ammunition trafficking, as well as offenses related to the customs code.

The Greek Deputy Minister of Citizen Protection, Mr. Oikonomou, during his intervention at the opening ceremony noted that:

"We worked very systematically with patience and perseverance and with the assistance of the heads of our diplomatic authorities in Tirana and Albania, where they also contributed significantly, in order to reach this happy end of inaugurating the Joint Contact Center for Police and Customs Cooperation, the which I want to point out will operate and be staffed by officials of the Albanian police, the Albanian customs authorities, the Hellenic Customs Authority, the Greek customs authorities and thus provide the possibility on a 24-hour basis to exchange information in real time".

For his part, the Albanian Deputy Minister of Interior, Mr. Mahila emphasized that:

"The operation of this center will help to improve the quality of the movement of citizens at the border. We have established a very good cooperation between the police authorities of the two countries, for the better management of the flows of immigrants on both sides as well as the media. A year ago, with my colleague, Mr. Oikonomou, we were here again, in a joint meeting, with all the police directors related to the Greek-Albanian border.

The main objective of this meeting was the improvement of the traffic of visitors from both sides of the border and the facilitation in this direction, especially on the days of the holidays, and these results prove the very good cooperation that existed between the two police authorities".

In addition, the ceremony was attended by the Governor of the Independent Public Revenue Authority, Mr. George Pitsilis, who referred to the experience that exists from the operation of respective Contact Centers with Bulgaria and Turkey, which proves that the cooperation of customs and police authorities of neighboring countries, drastically reduces response times for searching and retrieving critical information and facilitates the exchange of know-how of best practices for circuit breakers.

The opening ceremony was attended by the Ambassadors of Greece and Albania, Mrs. Kamitsi Konstantina and Ms. Hajdaraga Luela respectively, the Consul of Albania in Ioannina, Mr. Eltion Verleni, the Inspector General of the Police of Northern Greece, Lieutenant General Mr. Spyridon Sklavos, the Coordinator of the Decentralized Administration of Epirus and Western Macedonia, Mrs. Dimitrios Gazis, the Deputy Governor of Epirus, Mrs. Panagiota Mitrokosta, the Mayor of Pogoni, Mr. Konstantinos Kapsalis and the Mayor of Dropolis, Mr. Dimitrios Tolis.

Also, the Members of the Joint Committee attended, and specifically, from the Greek side, Brigadier General Mr. Ioannis Stavrakakis, Director of the International Police Cooperation Directorate, Brigadier General Mr. Vasilios Mouselimis, General Regional Police Director of Epirus, Mr. Angelos Lymberis, Head of Directorate of Strategy for Customs Controls & Violations and Mr. Dimitrios Raptis, Head of the Department of Strategy for Customs Controls & Violations.

From the Albanian side, Mr. Saimir Boshnjaku, Senior Official, Director of the Department for Borders and Immigration, Mr. NdueDoci, Director of the Local Directorate for Borders and Immigration of Argyrokastro, Mr. Fation Shehu, Director of the Combating Directorate of of Smuggling in the General Directorate of Customs and Mr. Rubin Shehu, Head of the Kakavia Customs Branch.

It is emphasized that the Joint Contact Centers are a best practice for information exchange and their value in dealing with cross-border crime is recognized both by Greece and by the structures of the European Union.

With the Contact Center in Kakavia, the presence of our country in such regional police cooperation schemes is also expanded, since it also participates in the bilateral Contact Center with Bulgaria, in Serres Bastion and in the tripartite one with Bulgaria and Turkey, in Kapitan Andreevo of Bulgaria.