Opportunities for Cooperation between Estonia and ... - Valitsus

APPENDIX 7
INTERNAL SECURITY
One factor affecting the success of a country or region in global competition is
how safe and secure it is to work and live there. Of equal importance with the
security situation is how secure the citizens perceive their environment to be
and what the projected security image is internationally. By world standards,
Estonia and Finland are regarded as relatively safe and secure countries.
To a great extent, the problems of internal security are similar in Estonia and
Finland. To manage them properly, cooperation is called for. Over the past 15
years, the police, customs, the border guard and the rescue services of the two
countries have considerably intensified their cooperation.
Primarily, the framework for cooperation in the field of internal security is
provided by the European Union. Estonia and Finland have worked together
to pursue joint objectives that we find important in order to enhance internal
security in this region and, subsequently, the whole of the European Union.
One of the cornerstones of police cooperation between Estonia and Finland
has been the 1995 bilateral agreement on crime prevention. Compared with
1995, the operating environment has changed so much that the agreement
should be updated by placing greater emphasis on the electronic exchange of
information and shared access to electronic files. Estonia’s accession to the
European Union and the Schengen area has decreased border checks between
the two countries. In order not to be compelled to compromise on general
security, it is necessary to develop the regulatory basis to ensure more flexible
cooperation between pre-trial investigators in gathering information.
The joint FINESTO working group of the Estonian and Finnish police, established
in 2000, seeks to improve efficiency in the exchange of operative information
to combat organized crime. The first joint teams of criminal investigators were
appointed by Estonia and Finland in 2007. Joint investigative teams are among
the latest instruments of police cooperation within the European Union. Aside
from the National Bureaus of Investigations of the two countries, the joint teams
have included customs officers, prosecutors and local police departments. The
experiences gained by Estonia and Finland from joint investigators’ teams have
been positive. Additionally, the criminal police of the two countries have carried
out several other police operations by employing other forms of cooperation in
which confidential relations between the organizations are truly important.
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