Final report - IMPEL-TFS NCP Exchange Days 2011

4. DEVELOPMENT OF THE NCP NETWORK
This meeting was the fifth meeting of the NCP network. Again, there is a
significant difference in interaction and participation amongst the NCPs.
People are more comfortable to give their opinion and are more willing to
assist in the programme with presentations or other activities than
before. Also, it is noticed that the NCPs have more frequent contacts
outside the meetings of IMPEL-TFS and they are actively cooperating
when they are back at work in their own countries. More WSR cases are
dealt with internationally and solved together and several authorities in
participating countries have organised joint enforcement activities. The
protected area ‘Basecamp’ is used actively for discussions and exchange
of documents all throughout the year. During the informal part of the
programme many of the participants discuss their own specific TFS
matters and ‘have done businesses with their European colleagues face
to face. The informal and personal contacts are extremely important in
international collaboration and enforcement officers are more likely to
contact their counterparts outside their own country when they have met
them and talked to them on several occasions. It is also a matter of trust
and understanding of the different situations in each member country of
IMPEL-TFS. Enforcement officers have a better understanding about the
possibilities (and difficulties) and needs of the colleagues in countries that
they are dealing with. Furthermore, the contacts that authorities have
with authorities in destination countries are shared and helped them to
solve difficult cases of illegal shipments to for example the Far East or
Africa. These results of the NCP Exchange Days are difficult to measure
or show to the outside world but they are maybe the most important
results of the exchange days.
IMPEL-TFS NCP Exchange Days FINAL Report
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28- 29 September 2011 – Berlin, Germany January 2012