The sixteenth Regional Meeting of South-East Europe Firearms Experts Network (SEEFEN)

On 31 May-1 June 2022 in Tirana, Albania, SEESAC organized the sixteenth Regional SEEFEN Meeting. The meeting gathered investigators, customs officials, prosecutors, ballistic experts, and border police representatives, from the Western Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine.

The meeting united SEEFEN members to share their knowledge on lessons learned, challenges faced, new modus operandi, and ways forward in combatting illicit trafficking of firearms and explosives in and out of southeast Europe. The 16th SEEFEN meeting proved once again to be an excellent example of the successful facilitation of regional cooperation in combatting illicit trafficking of firearms.

The meeting started with a warm welcome and statements by Mr. Albert Dervishaj, Deputy General Director of Albanian State Police, Ms. Jorida Shytaj, Senior Political Advisor in Regional Cooperation Council, and Ms. Bojana Balon, Head of SEESAC. All speakers highlighted the importance of regional cooperation as a basis for the successful fight against misuse and illicit trafficking of firearms in the region and beyond.

After opening remarks delegations of all jurisdictions brought out their major concerns and challenges as well as recent accomplishments in the area of SALW control. Delegations provided an overview of the actions of investigators in the field of firearms-related crimes, and examples of specific cases which included cooperation between the investigators, ballistics, and the prosecutors.

The impact of the war conflict in Ukraine, and the possible risks and threats the conflict might have on the SALW Control in the EU and the Western Balkans were further analyzed in the presentation delivered by Mr. Martin van der Meij, Specialist on Weapons and Explosives from EUROPOL.

During the course of the meeting, participants were also presented with the Best Practice Manual developed by The European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI), designed to provide a framework for the procedures, quality principles, training processes, and approaches to the forensic examination of scenes of incidents.

Ms. Amina Masovic, Firearms Specialist from Interpol presented the ongoing project implemented by Interpol, in cooperation with UNODC, on enhancing the cooperation in criminal matters through increased information exchange on illicit firearms, research and analysis of illicit trafficking flows and increased detection of firearms, their parts, and ammunition in postal and fast courier parcels.

Mr. Adrian Whiting and Mr. Callum Lloyd presented a REGISYNC project, funded by the Internal Security Fund (ISF) under the DG Home, that is looking at creating harmonized standards for weapon registries and which will be implemented in the Region.

Mr. Adam Piotrowski from FRONTEX brought the newest update on the progress and plans regarding the development of the handbook for border guards developed in cooperation with SEESAC. He also used the opportunity to thank once again all who provided comments and contributed to the successful development of this important document.

During the focused group sessions, border and customs officers dived deeper into a specific area of intelligence exchange and ways forward on better cooperation between customs and border in countering illicit trafficking of firearms and explosives. Expert guests from BiH, Mr. Edin Serezlic and Mr. Davor Ilic brought their experience and the best practice in this field from the implementation of the CIAT and HALT projects in BiH.

The group of prosecutors, Investigators, and Ballistic experts focused more on the emerging threat of 3D printed weapons, modular weapons, and ghost guns, and the challenges these bring in the implementation of the forensic examination process, in the particular ballistic examination. Although the actual risk of 3D weapons is still not detected in the Western Balkans, the fast development of new technologies is to be more closely monitored in the future.

The two-day regional meeting of SEEFEN was successfully concluded on 1 June, and was conducted in the context of the implementation of the European Union Council Decision (CFSP) 2019/2111 in support of SEESAC disarmament and arms control activities in South-East Europe.