4.5 Mission to Serbia Financial Investigations, Anti-Money Laundering and Seizure of Criminal Proceeds On 9 June and 17 September, the Mission supported the organization of roundtables on intra and inter-agency co-operation among police and prosecutors in Belgrade. The roundtables gathered approx. 30 high- and mid-level criminal investigators from the Service for Combating Organized Crime, including the Financial Investigation Unit, the Service for Suppression of Crime, Service for War Crimes, and Service for Fighting Terrorism and Extremism, together with participants from Serbia’s Public Prosecutor’s Office. Discussions focused on the advantages and problems in proactive investigations, and ways to improve interagency co-operation between police and prosecutors. They also contributed to implementation of the newly adopted Financial Investigation Strategy for 2015-2016. From 1-2 October, the Mission, together with the MoI, organized a course on advanced bank documentation practices for 25 economic crime investigators of the Serbian police service. The training, delivered by experts from the Serbian National Bank and other commercial banks, focused on recent developments in the area of anti-money laundering related to Know Your Customer and Customer Due Diligence. From 26-27 November, the Mission organized a two-day seminar for participants to learn about the use of alternative banking platforms and remittance systems for money laundering purposes and for financing of terrorism. The event gathered 25 participants from the police, prosecution, and the Ministry of Finance’s APML, which is Serbia’s FIU. A UK expert and an expert from the Cybercrime Department of the Serbian police delivered presentations on the means terrorists use to raise funds and transfer money in criminal organizations. From 7-8 December, the Mission organized a two-day training on the misuse of international donor funds, gathering 26 participants from the police, prosecution, customs, tax police, Financial Intelligence Unit, and the Serbian AntiFraud Co-ordination Service (AFCOS). Participants learnt about best practices from representatives of the Italian AFCOS in ensuring co-ordination among various state and international actors. Cross-Border Co-operation in Criminal Matters From 13-14 January, the Mission supported the Head of the National Contact Point for Co-operation with Europol of the Serbian police to attend the heads of Europol National Units Meeting in The Hague. This meeting constituted the first opportunity for the Serbian representative to participate 80 as an observer, following the signing of the operational agreement between the Serbian police and Europol. Topics of discussion related to the use of Europol’s information systems, legal aspects of operational data processing, foreign terrorist fighters, and the interim SOCTA 2015 report. From 31 August-2 September and from 27-28 October, the Mission supported their attendance at subsequent meetings of the heads of Europol National Units Meeting in The Hague. From 9-10 June, the Mission supported a study visit for the Serbian police’s delegation from the Service for Combating Organized Crime to Europol in The Hague. The aim of the visit was to inform members of the Serbian police about Europol’s role in fighting trafficking of illicit firearms and leading parallel investigations, as well as methods for prompt and mutual exchange of intelligence and information for the purpose of conducting joint investigations. From 17-18 November, the Mission organized the visit of a Europol expert to the Serbian Europol National Unit. The purpose of the visit was to assess the implementation of the operational agreement with Europol in relation to personal data protection and data security in exchanging data between Europol and Serbia. To be further assessed were the relevant national legislation (Law on Personal Data Protection), internal regulations of the MoI, and the internal organization and structure of the Serbian Europol National Unit. Counter-Terrorism & VERLT From 20-21 April, the Mission facilitated a visit of the TNTD’s Advisor on Anti-terrorism Issues (Action against Terrorism Unit) and Advisor on Organized Crime (Strategic Police Matters Unit) to Belgrade to assess the need for the OSCE’s assistance in developing the National Strategy to Combat Terrorism. A series of meetings were held with high level representatives of the Serbian Government from the MoI, Ministry of Justice, and Security-Information Agency. From 30 June-1 July, the Mission, together with the OSCE Secretariat, facilitated the participation of three representatives from CSOs to attend the 2015 OSCE Counter-Terrorism Expert Conference in Vienna, entitled “Countering the Incitement and Recruitment of Foreign Terrorist Fighters”. Aleksandar Nikolic, State Secretary of the Serbian Ministry of Interior opened the conference alongside the OSCE Secretary General. On 6 August, the inter-governmental Working Group for developing the National Counter-Terrorism Strategy and its Action Plan, chaired by the MoI’s State Secretary, held its first meeting. The group is made up of representatives from other relevant ministries, security and military intelligence agencies, institutions and academia. A follow up meeting was