OSCE supports international co-operation among specialized organized crime prosecution offices at PCOCP meeting in Belgrade

On 21 and 22 October 2026, senior prosecutors and other representatives of specialized prosecution offices from across South-Eastern Europe and the wider European region gathered at an annual meeting of the Permanent Conference of Organized Crime Prosecutors (PCOCP) in Belgrade, Serbia.

Prosecutors from 12 participating States joined this meeting, namely: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, North Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain and Romania. Participants discussed shared challenges in combating transnational organized crime, with a focus on money laundering involving virtual assets, cyber-enabled crime and cross-border access to electronic evidence.

The meeting marked ten years since the signing of PCOCP’s Declaration of Intent, a framework for international prosecutorial co-operation that has developed into a network encompassing 15 prosecution offices from 14 countries.

The anniversary provided an opportunity to review the network’s development since prosecutorial offices from ten countries first signed the Declaration of Intent in 2016. Participants also welcomed Spain as the network’s newest member. The PCOCP Secretariat, currently led by the Special Prosecution Office against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) of Albania, facilitated discussions on priorities for future co-operation. 

Additionally, participants exchanged practical experience in tracing virtual asset transactions, identifying criminal networks and turning digital intelligence into evidence usable in criminal proceedings, drawing on ransomware and online fraud cases. They also explored how to obtain electronic evidence across borders through mutual legal assistance, direct co-operation, preservation requests and engagement with service providers, and discussed ways to strengthen the network’s long-term sustainability and arrangements for the next annual meeting.

“This network supports the exchange of professional experiences and building relationships across borders, the value of which becomes clear when prosecutors need assistance across borders… In our broader responsibilities of investigating and prosecuting organized crime, no jurisdiction can address this challenge alone,” said Anita Jella, Head of the PCOCP Secretariat.

“Only through collaboration can we do something positive for our individual states. Through this network, prosecutorial offices, including from countries without strong relationships, co-operate positively in the interest of rule of law and the fight against organized crime,” noted Mladen Nenadić, Chief Prosecutor of Serbia’s Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime.

The meeting builds on earlier OSCE support to the network through an extrabudgetary project on asset recovery.

The meeting was jointly organized by the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department, the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities through its extrabudgetary project “Innovative policy solutions to mitigate money laundering risks of virtual assets”, the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the Serbian Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime.