International crime and the challenges posed by illegal immigration in Europe were the topics of the Nordic Police Conference held in Helsinki on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Participants in the conference included the National Police Commissioners of all the Nordic countries and other members of the police management.
The aim of the conference, which is arranged every other year, is to further increase the efficiency of the already highly effective Nordic police cooperation, continue with the well-proven practices, develop common ways of operating and discuss common problems.
For example, Berndt Körner , Deputy Executive Director of Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, and Robert Crepinko , head of Europol's European Migrant Smuggling Centre, talked about the reception and return of asylum seekers, illegal immigration and the related challenges.
One of the topics was the terror attacks in Brussels, presented by Catherine De Bolle , Commissioner General of the Belgian Federal Police, and Peter Van Osselaer , who led the police operations.
According to National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen , the Police Conference provides an excellent forum for discussing how the situation has changed during the year and how to prepare for the future.
"In addition to our Nordic cooperation partners and colleagues, the participants in the conference included our important European cooperation partners Europol and Frontex. We heard the viewpoints of international organisations on the situation, their forecasts and how they believe international crime could be prevented in advance," Kolehmainen said.
Nordic police cooperation has long traditions. Police Chiefs began to meet before World War II. The first cooperation agreement was signed in 1959. Today, the Nordic police forces conduct close practical cooperation in all operational areas and at all organisational levels.
Meetings between National Police Commissioners are held annually, and the Nordic Police Conference is arranged every other year. The topic of the previous conference, held in Oslo in 2014, was cybercrime. The decision was then taken to arrange common training events, improve the exchange of intelligence information, establish common investigation groups, analyse phenomena related to cybercrime and exchange experiences of working practices.
