Organised Crime in States of the Post-Communist Central Europe. Similar Problems Security Building, Similar Duties after Joining the EU

Abstract

States of the post-communist Central Europe (PCCE), i.e. Poland, Hungary,
Slovakia and the Czech Republic, occupy important strategic position in the
fight against organised crime now after their accession to the European
Union. It is a security space where the EU can apply a more or less unified
security policy. Although regional differences exist among the PCCE
countries, basic conditions, mechanisms of the organised crime groups
activities, and styles of state security systems reconstruction are similar. In
the course of the 1990s, all PCCE countries more or less successfully
adapted their legislations to new conditions and defined them according to
the EU standards. They started the reconstruction of security forces and
their de-politisation as well. "Wars of policemen", police officers fluctuation,
various interest groups pressure, lack of qualified justice specialists, lengthy
and expensive law enforcement procedures and corruption, build obstacles
for these processes. The article analyses basic common trends in the
development of PCCE criminal scene and legislations and security services
reconstruction on the basis on which it is suitable to construct regional
security conceptions and to create unified EU security space.