Agenda Annual Programme Meeting

Follow the Programme’s Annual Meeting live on Monday, 8th November on Youtube.

From Monday 8 November until Friday 12 November, around 150 institutional specialists from Latin America and the European Union will exchange experiences on international investigation and cooperation to strengthen the fight against finance originating from transnational crime.

This EL PAcCTO Programme Annual Meeting brings together representatives from the security and justice institutions, as well as those involved with the programme’s focal points, after a year marked by the pandemic in which a face-to-face meeting could not take place.

Money, a fundamental part of transnational organised crime

The chosen theme, finance originating from organised crime, is one of the big challenges facing the police and the judicial and penitentiary institutions today, and it will encourage debate among participants, as this money supports illicit businesses around the world, and also represents the profits made by these businesses.

The opening of the meeting will be attended by Chris Hoornaert, European Union Ambassador to Panama and Jorge de la Caballería, Head of Unit B1 at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships, as well as authorities from the Republic of Panama. The keynote address, moderated by Inmaculada Zamora (Secretary General of the FIIAPP) and Jérôme Heitz (Director of the Peace, Stability and Security Department at Expertise France), will focus on the Team Europe initiative on Governance, Justice and Security, with the participation of Claudia Gintersdorfer, Head of the Americas Division with the European External Action Service and Jorge de la Caballería.

The first part of the meeting will be completed by a panel discussion entitled “The Money from Crime Never Sleeps” and eight themed workshops that will address more specific issues such as the relationship between corruption and the financing of crime, the streamlining of international cooperation to tackle financial crime and the seizure of assets in the digital sphere.

In the second part of the meeting, various meetings will take place on EL PAcCTO’s focal points in Latin America with a view to taking stock and orienting future actions over the coming year.

And finally, the meeting is expected to conclude with the signing of the deed setting up the Inter-Institutional Technical Committee (ITC) of the Central Authorities for International Cooperation of Panama. This ITC will allow for better coordination and articulation of the work carried out by the Panamanian institutions fighting organised crime. Luis Ramón Fábrega, President of Panama’s Supreme Court of Justice, Janaina Tewaney, Government Minister in the Republic of Panama, Erika Mouynes, Panamanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Javier Caraballo, Panamanian Attorney General will participate in this signing.