UNMIK/PR/733
Pristina – Representatives from countries across South-East Europe joined Kosovo’s SRSG Michael Steiner in Pristina today to define a strategy for combating cigarette smuggling in the region. The representatives were from the governments of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Romania, Montenegro, Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Cigarette smuggling in the region has continued to deprive governments and local economies of millions of euros in tax revenues. Furthermore, incomes earned from smuggling often go to finance organized crime.
“Cigarette smuggling poisons the Balkans in many ways,” said SRSG Michael Steiner in his opening statement to the regional representatives. “The millions of cigarettes that are smuggled each year in the Balkans line the pockets of criminals at the expense of doctors, nurses, teachers and others working to make their societies healthy and prosperous.”
In a working meeting, conference participants drafted a two-page document known as the “Pristina Declaration,” which outlines the specific actions to be taken to combat smuggling.
Among them are: developing a common approach to product identification by using banderols and local script identification on packaging; developing greater coordination in efforts to regulate imports; developing a common approach to improving inland customs and tax efforts; developing a mechanism for the exchange of information on cigarette imports, exports and transit within the region; augmenting the use of information technology at border/boundary checkpoints; pursuing efforts to harmonize excise rates according to EU standards and addressing, with cigarette producers, the regulation of the direct supply of cigarettes to importing countries. These actions would be undertaken as part of a systematic program over the next year to build a sustained and comprehensive regional and bilateral cooperation in the area of cigarette smuggling.
“In the Balkans cigarette smuggling is the life-blood of organized crime, nourishing syndicates that have spread like a weed over the region, tarnishing its image and eroding its social mortar,” declared SRSG Michael Steiner.
“Today we’re taking the first step toward pulling out that weed and restoring the image of the region.”
“Kosovo has earned an unfortunate reputation as a hub of this illicit trade. That’s why I’m proud to welcome you here to Pristina. We are determined to show our neighbors and the world that Kosovo is not just part of the problem of crime but will be part of the solution as well.”
