At the invitation of Europol, the WCO Secretary General, Kunio Mikuriya, visited Europol headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands on 27 November 2013. He spoke at the Europol Tax Crime Conference about the WCO perspective and its tools to ensure efficiency, security, transparency and resilience of the global supply chain, including the Economic Competitiveness Package and the Compliance and Enforcement Package.
Secretary General Mikuriya met separately with the Europol Director, Mr. Rob Wainwright, to explore ways of enhancing cooperation between the two Organizations, based on the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2002. They agreed to review areas of joint work, especially in terms of exchanging information and intelligence while taking data protection aspects into consideration. This could serve as a model for intensifying collaboration between Customs and Police at national level.