On 19 December 2022, the Council of Europe Economic Crime and Cooperation Division (ECCD) convened an online workshop on detecting and investigating the abuse of Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) for terrorist financing purposes for over 25officials from relevant Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA), prosecution and members of the judiciary from the Western Balkans and Türkiye. 

During the workshop, Council of Europe experts shared good practices on investigating terrorist financing cases, which were illustrated by case studies that facilitated the identification of needs and methods for investigation and prosecution. The workshop fostered interactive exchanges between experts and public officials from the region on a wide range of topics including current threats, sources of information and investigation techniques. Participants agreed on the need to further improve communication and coordination with Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) to obtain more effective results in preventing their misuse for the financing of terrorism.

This online session was part of a series of activities aimed at better equipping civil society and public authorities in the fight against the misuse of NPOs for the financing of terrorism. The training was therefore complementary to the Regional Risk Assessment of Terrorist Financing through NPOs and the subsequent conference on the topic, but also to the developed “Guidelines for Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) on Conducting Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment”  and Technical Paper on “Oversight and Supervision of the NPO Sector for Regulatory Authorities”. A regional conference on best practices to prevent the financing of terrorism through NPOs was organised as a follow up activity. 

The regional Action against economic crime is a part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019 – 2022”.