New OSCE department for transnational threats established

With the beginning of 2012, a new department has been established that will improve the OSCE’s work on combating transnational threats (TNT), OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier announced on 10 January 2012.

The TNT Department will address threats such as terrorism, organized crime, cyber threats, and the illicit trafficking in narcotics, bringing together expertise from the OSCE’s Strategic Police Matters Unit, Action Against Terrorism Unit, and Borders Team.

On 7 December 2011, the OSCE Ministerial Council in Vilnius took a decision to strengthen co-ordination and coherence within the OSCE to address transnational threats, “with the aim of better translating political commitments into effective and sustainable programmatic action”.

The Ministers welcomed the proposal by the OSCE Secretary General to create this department with a view to ensuring more efficient use of the OSCE’s resources in addressing transnational threats. To this end, the new department will serve as a focal point for co-ordination of activities throughout the Organization to address transnational threats.

The new department, with a 2012 budget of 2,247,500 euro, will be led by a Co-ordinator of Activities to Address Transnational Threats; until his or her recruitment, the Secretary General will oversee its activities personally.