National Revenue
Administration

RILO in Warsaw
The Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Eastern and Central Europe was created on 15 February 1993 in Warsaw on the basis of the decisions taken at a meeting held in Warsaw in December 1992 organized by the Customs Cooperation Council (nowadays the World Customs Organization) in collaboration with the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) and with participation of representatives of the Customs administrations of Latvia, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.

RILO ECE Office is hosted by the National Revenue Administration within the structure of Ministry of Finance in Warsaw, Poland, and it affiliates 20 Members Countries from Eastern and Central Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

RILO ECE belongs to the Global Network (GRN) of Regional Intelligence Liaison Offices (RILOs) acting within the World Customs Organization (WCO) structure which consists of 11 Offices worldwide.

RILO role and tasks
A RILO's role and tasks are determined by Members via the common framework of the RILO Recommendation and through the individual role and tasks dispensed by the affiliated countries within the sub-region, if the need to perform additional tasks is recognized. As the affiliated countries are RILO stakeholders, RILO resources and services should be used in accordance with the said countries' strategic and operational needs and requirements.

The main tasks performed by a RILO consist of:

• supplying the CEN and its applications with a sufficient amount of quality data;
• conducting strategic analyses and threat assessments to facilitate the
  decision-making process regarding the allocation of resources and identification of priorities;
• carrying out operational analyses and intelligence work in order to initiate, support, prepare and run operational activities for Members or the WCO;
• providing a virtual or actual Operational Co-ordination Unit (OCU) for projects and operations;
• issuing intelligence alerts;
• facilitating mutual administrative assistance (MAA), especially at interregional and global level by using the GRN;
• offering training, technical and logistical assistance to Members;
• promoting and maintaining regional co-operation with other relevant agencies and organizations.

Benefits
RILO ECE offers a great deal of added value to the affiliated countries in the region by providing a regional and global network. No other institutions or organizations are able to offer this type of global service and support to Customs administrations.

RILO ECE can serve their affiliated countries by:

• providing support for and advice on setting strategic priorities and objectives for Customs management by identifying regional and global trends and threats;
• encouraging compliance with CEN requirements and providing access to a global database on seizures and offences (CEN), which is not limited to European databases;
• preparing regional and global analysis and intelligence support for operational activities (pre- and post-operational);
• implementing fact-finding projects on specific phenomena;
• issuing and disseminating alerts regarding control and enforcement activities to the National Contact Point (NCP) network;
• providing a service platform for operational activities with other regions, sub-regions or countries by providing analysis, a virtual or actual OCU and making use of the entire GRN to set up operations on global scale;
• facilitating the provision of MAA to Member countries outside the region or sub-region via the GRN, by identifying contact points or by forwarding nominal information via the GRN in accordance with the existing legal framework;
• forwarding spontaneous (nominal) information on seizures, offences and suspicious consignments from outside the region to the respective affiliated countries;
• providing a platform for sharing experiences, best practices and promoting national activities between sub-regions.

RILO ECE Member Countries

• Albania
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Estonia
• Georgia
• Greece
• Hungary
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• North Macedonia
• Moldova
• Montenegro
• Poland
• Romania
• Serbia
• Slovakia
• Ukraine
• Turkey

Contact
Regional Intelligence Liaison Office
Eastern and Central Europe
Ministry of Finance
12, Swietokrzyska Str.
00-916 Warsaw, Poland
tel. +48 22 694 35 91
e-mail: riloece@mf.gov.pl