Background

Research Initiative on Organised Crime (RIOC) was an initiative launched in 2018 by a group of European experts in policing, prosecution, judiciary and political sciences sharing the same vision of the necessity to disrupt and prevent organised crime groups infiltrating into societies in the wider European space.

Organised crime is increasingly seen as a major threat to international security and stability as well as domestic and global economies. Also in the field of the European Union Common Security and Defence Policy, OC is getting special attention. First, RIOC brought together interested stakeholders to feed into the discussion on better tools and solutions for the European Union in fighting organised crime and ensuring ever-deepening inter-agency cooperation.

The founders of RIOC prepared a CSDP Handbook on Advisory Support to tackle Organised Crime published by Crisis Management Center Finland in September 2019.

The founders of RIOC also prepared content for the Workshop entitled Advisory role of CSDP Missions in disrupting Criminal Organisations in host countries organised under the EU Police and Civilian Services Training (EUPCST) project and funded by the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) in October 2019. These first activities are part of the core vision of RIOC to develop and advise on strategic and tactical instruments to tackle OC.

In 2019, RIOC was established as a Civil Society Association in Finland. The aim is to register branches in other countries in the future. The President of the Board, Tanja Tamminen, is happy to give further information.