MINSK, 29 May (BelTA) – The Investigative Committee of Belarus is interested in establishing cooperation with law enforcement agencies of the European Union – Europol and Eurojust. The plans were discussed as the committee's Chairman Ivan Noskevich met with Head of the Cooperation Program Unit of the Delegation of the European Union to Belarus Berend de Groot, BelTA has learned.
Belarusian investigators are interested in studying in more detail the European experience and cutting-edge methods for investigating various kinds of crime, particularly in the sphere of high technologies, drugs trafficking, trafficking in persons and illegal migration, counteraction of corruption and organized crime. Ivan Noskevich noted that the Investigative Committee of Belarus is interested in establishing cooperation in crime investigation with law enforcement agencies of the European Union – Europol and Eurojust. The sides agreed to maintain working contacts in order to promptly deal with matters of mutual interest in the sphere of providing legal aid in criminal cases. The readiness to share the positive experience of organizing the investigation of criminal cases was confirmed.
Representatives of the Investigative Committee noted that Belarus rather actively cooperates with European Union countries in the fight against crime and corruption. Bilateral agreements on legal aid in criminal cases have been signed with a number of European Union member states such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Cyprus. Interaction in the sphere of criminal law with other European Union countries is maintained on the basis of reciprocity, which does not always contribute to prompt legal aid.
The problem can be resolved by developing the legal base of international legal cooperation in the sphere of criminal justice by means of signing new bilateral agreements with individual European Union member states or by Belarus acceding to existing international instruments of the Council of Europe: the 1957 European Convention on Extradition, the 1959 European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, and the 2001 Convention on Cybercrime.
Belarus has already become a full party to the Council of Europe's international treaties on fighting crime such as the 1999 Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and the 2005 Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings. Representatives of the Investigative Committee noted that certain steps are being taken to build a constructive dialogue between the committee and partners from the European Union. Thus, representatives of the Investigative Committee take an active part in various events of the joint project of the European Union and the Council of Europe on fighting cybercrime in Eastern Partnership countries.
