Eurasia Press & News
The Interior Ministries of Bulgaria and Romania have signed a cooperation agreement providing for the transfer of police officers from one country to the other.
The deal was signed Monday in the Romanian Danube town of Giurgiu by the Chief Secretary of the Bulgarian Interior Kalin Georgiev and his Romanian counterpart Petre Toba. It was initially announced earlier in June.
The document provides for joint traffic police activities in the border regions and for joint patrolling to ensure the keeping of public order.
The major rationale for the Bulgarian-Romanian agreement is the large number of Romanian tourists visiting the Bulgarian Black Sea coast where some of them have been the victims of crimes such as car theft. According to the Bulgarian government data, about 1 million Romanian tourists visited Bulgaria in 2009.
Thus, the police cooperate deal will allow Romanian police officers to help their Bulgarian partners primarily with respect to cases whether Romanian visitors are involved. The document also provides an opportunity for sending Bulgarian policemen to Romania but the scale of such a measure will likely be much smaller because of the fewer Bulgarian visitors to Romania.
