On 11 December 2023, the Ministry of the Interior, as the programme operator of the European Economic area (EEA) grants programme “International Police Cooperation and Combating crime”, organised a face-to-face meeting of the joint Cooperation Committee and the Project Monitoring Board. Within the framework of the meeting, the progress of the programme and further activities of the programme were discussed with representatives of the Royal Norwegian Embassy, the Council of Europe, the Financial Mechanism Office, the Ministry of Finance, as well as programme’s project promoters – the State Police (SP), the State Revenue Service, the Financial Intelligence Service, the Ministry of Justice, the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau and the Ministry of Welfare.
The programme’s project promoters informed during the meeting about progress made in promoting cooperation between law enforcement agencies, combating and investigating economic crimes, setting up a whistleblowing system and implementing the Children’s house or “Barnahus” model. The Ministry of the Interior, as the programme operator of the EEA grants programme, informed that significant progress has been made within the framework of the bilateral cooperation fund – 10 initiatives have already been implemented for the total amount of more than EUR 77 000. Mr. Kaspars Āboliņš, Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior at the end of the meeting expressed gratitude to the project promoters for the significant progress made in achieving the programme’s results with a view to moving towards a more secure and more competitive Europe.
On 12 December 2023, a project visit took place to the SP Economic Crime Enforcement department, as well as to the SP Forensics department where the renovation of premises are in the process thanks to EEA grants support. During the project visit, the representatives of the SP provided with the information about successful seminars and conferences held thanks to the EEA grants support.
The participants of the project visit also looked at the SP vehicles purchased thanks to the EEA grants support, which are intended to use for making forensics examinations on the sites of the events.
The last of the project visit took place at the premises of the Children’s house, where participants got acquainted with the technical equipment and child-friendly conditions in the renovated premises thanks to the EEA grants support. In line with the Children’s house approach, children are interviewed in a sensitive way for investigation purposes – the premises are adapted to European Barnahus (Children’s house) quality standards, children are interviewed in a separate room by specially trained specialists, the specialists involved are provided with live transmission as well as video recording of the interview. The basic concept of a child’s home is to avoid exposing children to repeated interviews at multiple institutions at different locations in order to prevent the child from being repeatedly traumatised, as well as ensuring the necessary support and rehabilitation.The basic concept of a Children’s house is to avoid exposing children to repeated interviews at multiple institutions at different locations in order to prevent the child from being repeatedly traumatised, as well as ensuring the necessary support and rehabilitation.
The total funding of the EEA grants programme “International police cooperation and combating crime” is EUR 20 327 059. The EEA grants allocation is 85%, or EUR 17,278,000, while the state allocation is 15%, or EUR 3,049,059. More than 15 Latvian and foreign institutions are involved in the implementation of the programme. The aim of the programme is to strengthen the capacity of institutions to prevent and combat economic crimes in Latvia, as well as to improve cooperation between institutions in order to ensure that children who have suffered violence or witnessed it are worked in a child-friendly way in Latvia – by introducing the Barnahus model.
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