The Minister of Interior Ivan Demerdzhiev left for a working visit to the Polish capital Warsaw. The main focus of the visit is coordination between the member states to ensure security in the European Union and countering organized crime.
The program of the visit includes high-level bilateral talks. Ivan Demerdzhiev will meet with his Polish counterpart Marcin Kerwinski, who heads the Polish Ministry of the Interior. According to preliminary information from the ministry, the two will discuss specific steps to deepen cooperation, with special emphasis on the fight against cybercrime.
A key moment in the visit is the visit to the headquarters of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex. The Bulgarian Minister of the Interior will hold a working meeting with the executive director of the structure, Hans Leytens. The agenda includes issues related to the protection of the external borders of the European Union, the effective counteraction to illegal migration, as well as the future development of the operational capabilities and capacity of the agency.
The topic of security in the digital environment is a continuation of the requests made by the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs earlier this month. During a briefing at the Council of Ministers on August 19, Ivan Demerdzhiev emphasized the urgent need to increase efficiency in this area:
“The trend for growth in cybercrime is observed both at the national level and in the European Union, which is why it is necessary to build working counteraction structures.“
The Ministry of Internal Affairs specifies that the “Cybercrime“ Directorate under the General Directorate “Fight against Organized Crime“ carries out daily monitoring of the network. According to the minister, thousands of videos and publications that violate legal norms and social media rules have already been identified and taken down. However, given the clear increase in digital crimes in recent years, the capacity of the Directorate for the Prevention of Cybercrime remains insufficient to effectively cover the entire territory of the country.