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OSCE-supported Balkan Asset Management Interagency Network holds first meeting of 2021

The Balkan Asset Management Interagency Network (BAMIN), which is supported by the OSCE through an extra-budgetary project, organized its first Steering Group meeting under the Albanian Presidency on 10 February 2021. The Albanian Presidency in BAMIN is represented the Agency for Seized and Confiscated Assets from the country’s Ministry of Interior...

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Issued by:
OSCE Secretariat
Fields of work:
Policing, Economic activities

The Balkan Asset Management Interagency Network (BAMIN), which is supported by the OSCE through an extra-budgetary project, organized its first Steering Group meeting under the Albanian Presidency on 10 February 2021. The Albanian Presidency in BAMIN is represented the Agency for Seized and Confiscated Assets from the country’s Ministry of Interior.

During the meeting, participants discussed activities for the coming year, including mentoring and the possibility of study visits; membership of BAMIN; collaboration with other regional bodies in asset recovery; communication; and visibility of the platform.

Artur Kala, Director of the Agency for Seized and Confiscated Assets, who previously represented Albania’s 2020 OSCE Chairmanship at BAMIN meetings, thanked the Secretariats of the OSCE and the BAMIN for their support to the Network last year.

“As the BAMIN Presidency, our goal is to further enhance and expand this collaboration by including BAMIN in networks and other asset regeneration events worldwide. Our goal is to contribute to preserving the value of seized assets even more effectively throughout the region, providing greater economic value for confiscation,” he said.

The OSCE supports the Network through the extra-budgetary project “Strengthening the fight against transnational crime in South-Eastern Europe through improved regional co-operation in asset seizure, confiscation, management and re-use.” The OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department and the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) are implementing the project.

Iris Pilika, Programme Officer, Economic Co-operation and Governance (OCEEA) and co-manager of the project, thanked the Steering Group members and the BAMIN Secretariat for their ongoing active engagement and offered the OSCE’s continuous support for BAMIN and its members.

The United States Department of State, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom financially support the project.