The 1st Steering Committee Meeting of the Joint EU/CoE Project against Economic Crime (PECK III) was held online on the 7th December 2020, bringing together 28 participants including beneficiary institutions in Kosovo, EU and UNDP, to welcome the official beginning of the 3rd phase of the PECK Project.
The overall objective of the Project is to effectuate enhanced anti-corruption and anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) practices in Kosovo, in line with applicable European and international standards and good comparative practices. This phase builds on the results and lessons learned from PECK I and II and has been jointly designed with relevant beneficiaries in Kosovo and the European Union Office in Kosovo to assist in and support the development and implementation of economic crime related reforms. This will be done through the development of effective and sustainable capacities for preventing and suppressing corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing, and asset recovery.
Mr Frank Power (Head of the Council of Europe Office in Pristina) opened the meeting and thanked the Steering Committee members for their confidence in the project, which he noted is seen as a good practice for similar projects in the office. Subsequently, the Senior Project Officer and the Head of Unit II at CoE Headquarters in Strasbourg provided detailed presentations on the inception phase activities and the project’s workplan for the next three years.
Beneficiary institutions appreciated the project’s support to ongoing efforts and actions to fight economic crime in Kosovo. Mr Shaip Havoilli, Director of the Kosovo Anti-corruption Agency (KAA) stated that “we welcome further PECK support as it is timely and in line with Kosovo’s efforts to reach the standards promoted by GRECO”. The Kosovo Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-K) also expressed their support, with the Deputy Director stating that “so far the PECK project has provided valuable and quality support. We expect the 3rd phase will focus on effectiveness and will enable institutions to implement FATF standards, and, hopefully, when the next assessment of Kosovo is done, we will be compliant with those standards.” Beneficiaries also provided positive feedback on the lessons learned from previous phases of PECK and look forward to optimizing the ways by which the Project can support efforts to combat economic crime in Kosovo.
In addition, participants adopted vital documents including the Terms of Reference for the Steering Committee, as well as such as the Communication and Visibility Plan. The Steering Committee will use these documents to guide the project’s overall implementation and to inform local partners, stakeholders and the public about the progress and the impact of the project.
