Five years ago we launched the Coalition 2000
anti-corruption initiative, which has focused on the monitoring of
public attitudes and perceptions of corruption, as well as the
actual spread of corrupt practices. Entering this new, rather
unusual to us, territory has confirmed our belief that, unlike in
developed democracies, in Bulgaria this phenomenon is not limited
only to the classical forms of abuse of power and discretion.
Systemic corruption is an organic element of the business conducted
by organized criminal groups. It has become indispensable part of
trans-border criminal schemes.
To prove the seriousness of this problem a
conference was held in London this week focusing on organized crime
in the Balkans. I would like to briefly quote from the address to
participants in the conference made by the European Commissioner
for External Affairs, Mr. Chris Patten, who said that: "We can no
longer tolerate a situation where Balkan countries pretend to be
making reforms and we pretend to believe them."
Today's conference looks at the "new economy of
crime" in an attempt to examine the whole range of quasi-economic
activities - from contraband to money-laundering and corruption -
as important, though negative, features of transition.
There are at least two important reasons for
adopting such an approach: firstly, it is impossible to expect that
traditional methods for combating crime could produce adequate
results unless they are complemented by necessary reforms aimed at
limiting the scope of the gray and black economy; and secondly,
there is a need for structural reforms and reorganization within
the government, including in the security sector, in order to
respond to the new national and trans-border challenges.
Bulgaria's experience has made it clear that simply
mobilizing the efforts of law enforcement agencies would have
little impact on curbing trans-border crime and corruption unless
this process goes hand in hand with a successful judicial reform
and necessary legislative changes.
That is why countering the economy of crime requires
a strong political will and urgent measures to create a modern
legal and institutional environment for countering organized crime
and corruption.
As a representative of a NGO, I cannot but mention
the crucial importance of public-private partnerships in countering
organized crime and corruption, because these are important social,
political and economic phenomena. Today's conference proves the
advantages of this approach in analyzing the challenges, as well as
in designing measures to address them.
These problems are the focus of two reports just
published by the Center for the Study of Democracy which are
available to you. One deals with the wider Balkan context of an
emerging regional criminal infrastructure. The second report is the
result of our partnership with the Customs Agency and Ministry of
Interior and is an attempt at civic monitoring of the economy of
crime and of the efforts for countering it.
Lastly, I would like to stress the importance of
having here with us the ambassadors of the United States and United
Kingdom. In the past years, the U.S. has been particularly active
in combining the efforts of the international community in
countering terrorism, organized crime and money laundering. The UK
plays a leading role within the European Union in defining the new
challenges of trans-border crime. This is why I would like thank
Ambassador Pardew and Ambassador Soutar for being here today. I
would also like to express my confidence that the presence and
participation of Minister Petkanov, and senior government officials
is a sign of an expanding dialogue between the government and civil
society.
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