Details

The statistics show that crime rate has significantly decreased in comparison with the 90’s. Still each year over 22 thousand crimes are being registered in the border area. In the last few months German media alarmed that cars, bikes and agricultural machines disappear on a big scale in Germany. In Poland mean voices say that in Germany people do not know how to protect their belongings and that local police is reducing job positons, therefor that there are not enough people to chase thieves. Even though statistics show that Poles only commit a small amount, not more than 15 percent of illegal actions in the Polish-German border area, the committed crime in this region does harm the image of Poles in Germany and is a big problem for both authorities on both sides of the Oder river.

The cooperation between the two countries is getting better and better and the signed treaty on police, border and customs control cooperation during this year will give an extra boost. This is why not without purpose we will organize a discussion shortly before the ratification of this treaty by the Sejm and the Bundestag. During the seminar we are also going to present the latest data on the scale and methods of fighting against crime in the close border area and will face the following questions:

• What is the actual scale of crime in the Polish-German close border area?
• How does the everyday cooperation between German and Polish policemen look like?
• What does the signed and supposed to be ratified this year Polish-German treaty on police, border and custom control cooperation change?

The situation from the Warsaw and close border perspective will be briefly presented by the invited guests and Dr. Agnieszka Łada, who conducted researches on the territories close to the Polish-German border.

PROGRAMME

Introductory remarks

Everyday challenges connected with crime from the Polish close border area perspective

Bartłomiej Bartczak, mayor of Gubin

Cooperation in the framework of the Polish-German Centre for police, border and customs control cooperation in Świecko

Ulf Buschmann, coordinator of the German authorities, Polish-German Centre for police, border and customs control cooperation in Świecko

Introduced changes by the new Polish-German treaty on police, border and customs control cooperation

Grzegorz Polak, Director, Department of International Cooperation and European Funds, Ministry of the Interior

The cooperation of Polish police with German authorities fighting close border crimes

Mariusz Sokołowski, Press spokesman of the Police Commendant

Introduction and commentary

Agnieszka Łada, Head of the European Programme, Institute of Public Affairs

Moderation

Jacek Kucharczyk, President of the Executive Board, Institute of Public Affairs

The meeting will be interpreted (Polish-English).

The research report of A.Łada, Slogans or actions 2014. Polish-German cooperation fighting close border crime – facts and evaluation, Institute of Public Affairs, Warsaw 2014 will be handed out during the presentation

The seminar is part of the common project between the Institute of Public Affairs and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Poland : „Slogans or actions? Evaluation of the implementation of common Polish-German operations“