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.