D E C L A R A T I O N
of the Slovak Republic 
of

to designate Europol as the central office for combating euro counterfeiting

Slovak Republic, a Member State of the European Union, has given to the European Police Office (hereinafter referred to as “Europol”) a mandate to combat euro counterfeiting.

In order for Geneva Convention of 1929 to function more effectively, Slovak Republic shall in future fulfil its obligations as follows:

1.	With regard to euro counterfeiting, Europol shall perform – in the framework of its objective according to the Council Act of 26 July 1995 on establishment of a European Police Office (Europol Convention) – the following central office functions within the meaning of Articles 12 to 15 of Geneva Convention of 1929.
1.1.	Europol shall centralise and process, in accordance with the Europol Convention, all information of a nature to facilitate the investigation, prevention and combating of euro counterfeiting and shall forward this information without delay to the national central offices of the Member States.
1.2.	In accordance with the Europol Convention, in particular in accordance with Article 18 thereof and he Council Act of 12 March 1999 adopting the rules governing the transmission of personal data by Europol to third States and third bodies, Europol shall correspond directly with the central offices of third countries to fulfil the tasks set down in points 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 of this Declaration.
1.3.	Europol shall, insofar as it considers it expedient, forward to the central offices of third countries a set of specimens of actual euro.
1.4.	Europol shall regularly notify the central offices of third countries, giving all necessary particular, of new currency issued and the withdrawal of currency from circulation.
1.5.	Except in cases of purely local interest, Europol shall, insofar as it considers it expedient, notify the central offices of third countries of:
	–	any discovery of counterfeit or falsified Euro currency. Notification of the counterfeit or falsification shall be accompanied by a technical description of the counterfeit, to be provided solely by the institution whose notes have been counterfeited. A photographic reproduction or, if possible, a specimen counterfeited note should be transmitted. In urgent cases, a notification and a brief description made by the police authorities may be discreetly communicated to the central offices interested, without prejudice to the notification and technical description mentioned above;
–	details of discoveries of counterfeiting, stating whether it has been possible to seize all the counterfeit currency put into circulation.
1.6.	As central office for the Member States, Europol shall participate in conferences dealing with euro counterfeiting within the meaning of Article 15 of the Geneva Convention.
1.7.	Where Europol is unable to carry out the tasks specified in points 1.1. to 1.6. in accordance with the Europol Convention, the national central offices of the Member States shall retain competence.
2.	With regard to the counterfeiting of all other currencies and for central office functions not delegated to Europol in accordance with point 1, the existing competencies of the national central offices shall remain in effect.

Bratislava......................................