Improving Cross-border Co-operation in Forensic Science On 31 October and 1 November, the Mission, jointly with the MoI, organized a regional conference on the “Implementation of Quality Standard ISO/IEC 17025 in Forensic Science“, at the Forensic Centre in Danilovgrad. The objective was to improve cross border police cooperation to fight crime more effectively through the increased use of forensic evidence. Experts from the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI) in Warsaw presented best practices in the accreditation process and discussed aspects of criminal forensics with representatives of forensic institutes from eight Ministries of Interior. Participants agreed to continue developing institutional resources to accredit their institutions, using EU quality requirements in line with ISO/IEC 17025. ****** 4.5 Mission to Serbia Background The OSCE Mission to Serbia (hereafter the Mission) and its Law Enforcement Department (LED) assist Serbia in the reform of the police service in order to strengthen effective and democratic policing. As Serbia further integrates into European structures, the police service has continued to advance, increasing its level of professionalism and accountability. Co-operation with Serbia’s Government is based on the strategic framework document, a MoU, signed between the Mission and the Ministry of Interior (MoI) in 2009. The MoU defines the following priority areas: Police Accountability, Police Training and Education; Fight against Organized Crime, Community Policing, and Public Relations and Communication. The 2009 MoU also defines Border Police and Strategic Planning and Development, which were closed in 2009 and 2012, respectively in agreement with the MoI. In 2013, key areas of the Mission’s activities were in-line with the main MoI strategic areas defined in the overall MoI Development Strategy 2011-2016. Furthermore, the Mission assisted in the development of the Community Policing Strategy, as well as the implementation of the Ministry’s Communication Strategy, the National Strategy for the Fight against Organized Crime and the National Strategy for the Fight against Drugs. In 2013, the LED was comprised of 11 international and 18 national staff. The Mission conducted a self-evaluation exercise and the decision was made to close the Mission’s Public Relations and Communication Programme while mainstreaming its main components to the Community Policing Programme at the end of 2013. According to the selfevaluation, the Mission’s efforts in developing the Ministry’s capacities for public relations and communication in the last five years had allowed the Ministry to move forward on its own, within the overall framework of public administration reform in Serbia. The Mission also supported the TNTD/SPMU in conducting an assessment of the LED’s efforts in supporting the police reform process in Serbia between 2001 and 2013 (see also chapter 2.2) At the end of 2013, preliminary findings and recommendations of the assessment were taken into consideration for developing a new MoU with the MoI, defining priority areas of co-operation, to be signed in 2014. 80