Round Table Conference on the Issues of Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products and Related Crimes

Round Table Conference on the project entitled Identification of Risk of Smuggling and Counterfeiting (Business Process Analysis and Spatial Aspects) gathered at one place experts from national and international institutions, representatives of academic activity and private sector dealing with the issues of illicit trade in tobacco products and related crimes. It was held in the period 11 - 15 June at the UNWE.

In the Small Conference Hall

In the Forum took part Milko Berner, Deputy Minister of Interior, Dr. Tsvetan Dimitrov, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, Mr. Tsvetan Filev, Chairman of the National Association of Tobacco Growers and European Association of Tobacco Growers, experts from the Customs Agency, representatives of international institutions fighting against illicit trade in tobacco products, scientists from Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Serbia and Switzerland as well as experts participating in the project from the National and Regional Security Department.

The participants in the Confrence were presented the preliminary results from the implemented studies and they discussed some suggestions for improvement of the research methodology.

The event was opened by the Vice Rector Assoc. Prof. Dr. Milanka Slavova who greeted the guests on behalf of the Rector Prof. D.Sc.(Econ.) Statty Stattev.

Доц. Миланка Славова

The Deputy Minister Milko Berner greeted the research team for the ambitious project and outlined the timeliness of the issues of illicit trade in tobacco products in a global aspect. According to him the cooperation between the academic community and administration in that filed could be exclusively fruitful in the fight against the illicit tobacco trade. He expressed his thankfulness to the research team and wished success in further project development.

Mr. Milko Berner

The Deputy Minister Dr. Tsvetan Dimitrov presented the legal control mechanisms for the raw tobacco production and trade in Bulgaria.

The Head of the project Prof. Dimitar Dimitrov, Head of the National and Regional Security Department and Dean of the Economics of Infrastructure Faculty spoke about the project objectives and the researchers from the Department presented the methods of Business Process Analysis and Structural Equations Modeling. They explained how the methods are applied in the research related to the cigarette smuggling, relation to other crimes and the counteraction to it.

Prof. Dimitar Dimitrov

The research of the team is based on the idea that the cases of illicit trade and counterfeiting can be presented as a business process. As a result of their analysis it can be provided enough reliable information about the interconnection between the illicit trade, counterfeiting and other crimes (corruption, organized crime, informal or “grey” economy, trafficking in human beings, etc.) as well as about the ways of effective counteraction.

The legal team of the project presented to participants in the Forum the international legal framework against illicit trade in tobacco products. On the ground of analysis of the six international legal instruments in the filed the team made a suggestion for creation of international working group including experts from the international organizations under whose auspices the international agreements had been adopted. The objective is to be held discussions related to the creation of adequate and effective national legal frameworks.

In the frameworks of the Conference presentations were delivered by leading international experts: Ernesto Savona, Director of Transcrime - Italian Research Centre on Transnational Crime and professor in criminology, Prof. Friedrich Schneider from the University of Linz and Simon Hasom, analytics of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime in Geneva. They shared their experience in the field and told about their projects and initiatives.