In the context of the EU Pericles IV Programme, an international cooperation project "SEEC – Staff Exchange Euro Counterfeit", the National Counterfeit, National Analysis and Coin National Analysis of the Currency Area of the Croatian National Bank has started the implementation of the last part of the project to be held from March 6 to 10 and from March 20 to 24,2023 in the Croatian National Bank and in the National Police Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime of the General Police Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia.
 
Two employees from Spain’s central bank’s national counterfeit centre, national analysis centre and coin national analysis centre will participate in the first exercise and one employee from Portugal’s central bank and one from Portugal’s Ministry of Internal Administration will participate in the second exercise. During this staff exchange, the Croatian National Bank and the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia will acquaint their colleagues from Portugal and Spain with the organisation and operation of the institutions responsible for the prevention and suppression of currency counterfeiting in the Republic of Croatia and following and during this presentation of the operations of the Croatian National Bank and the Ministry of the Interior, our foreign colleagues will be invited to give an objective assessment of these operations and an analysis of business processes and give oral recommendations for system improvement. Over ten specialists in the field of combatting euro counterfeiting and technical analysis of currency from  the Croatian National Bank as the competent national authority for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting and the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia provided their support to this exchange while the Business Protocol Department of the CNB organised accompanying events.

The first part of the international exchange and training of specialists in the field of currency counterfeiting took place in Madrid, Spain from September 26 – 30,2022, and the second part took place in Portugal, from November 7 to 16,2022. The main objective of the Pericles IV programme is to prevent currency counterfeiting and related fraud and to preserve the integrity of euro banknotes and coins. The SEEC project is co-funded by the European Commission, which covers 75% of the total project costs while the remaining 25% is covered by the Croatian National Bank as the organising institution.

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