Between May 28th and 30th the Siracusa International Institute is organizing the first National Strategic Dialogue (NSD) on Illicit Trade in Skopje (Republic of North Macedonia).
The three-days programme involves several representatives of the major national institutions engaged in the fight against illicit trade. In particular, it includes representatives from the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Finance, from the High Judicial Council and from the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption.
The NSD aims to:
- build knowledge and awareness about illicit trade as a multi-faceted threat requiring both whole-of-Government and whole-of-society approaches;
- highlight the importance of incorporating a robust cross-sectoral perspective in efforts to combat illicit trade at the national and international levels;
- draw on the expertise, extensive experience and insights of national leaders, policy-makers and criminal justice officials in developing a more comprehensive understanding of national strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the fight against illicit trade; and
- strengthen cooperation and collaboration between national institutions and criminal justice officials in the investigation and prosecution of illicit trade-related crimes.
The opening ceremony was held yesterday with the opening remarks of Mr. Filippo Musca, Acting Director General of the Siracusa International Institute. Additional remarks were also given by H.E. Carlo Romeo, Italian Ambassador in the Republic of North Macedonia and by Ms. Kalinka Gaber, Secretary of State at the Secretariat of European Affairs of the Macedonian Government.
The NSD is organised within the framework of the Institute’s two-year research and capacity-building project, ‘Strengthening the Fight Against Illicit Trade in South Eastern Europe’ (or SEE-IMPACT),which is supported by PMI IMPACT, a global grant initiative of Philip Morris International to support projects dedicated to fighting illicit trade and related crimes.
SEE-IMPACT involves twelve countries of the Balkans area (Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey). The NSD in the Republic of North Macedonia is therefore only the first of a series of similar initiatives that the Institute will organize in the next months in other countries of the project.
This initiative follows the first High-Level Regional Strategic Dialogue (RSD) on Illicit Trade in South Eastern Europe, which was held last december at the Institute’s headquarters in Siracusa. The RSD included institutional representatives from all the countries of the SEE-IMPACT project and several officials of international organizations. The event was attended, among others, by Ms. Renata Deskoska, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of North Macedonia.
