France has just awarded "the Legion of Honour" to our Federal Police, represented by the Commissioner General of the Federal Police, Catherine De Bolle, and the Director of the Federal Judicial Police, Claude Fontaine.
© Shutterstock / xtock
It was during a ceremony this month at the French Embassy in Brussels that the French police paid tribute to the cooperation between the two countries' police services. An opportunity to recall that, in the current climate of fear and terrorism, it is essential to pool our strengths.
Cross-border police cooperation between the two countries has been implemented in particular via the secondment in September of a Belgian police liaison officer to the Hauts-de-France region's Prefecture in the frame of the prevention and fight against radicalisation. Catherine De Bolle also recalled that Belgian police officers were currently working in France and that French officers were already present in our police stations.
Another example of this cooperation was the operation to combat illegal weapons organised at the French-Belgian border at the end of October. In partnership with its French peer, the Belgian Federal Police implemented controls on the RN89 main road, which led to about 232 vehicles being intercepted in the fight against the transport and acquisition of illegal weapons between France and Belgium.
According to Catherine De Bolle, French-Belgian cooperation should increase further in the coming years. This is also confirmed by Claude Fontaine, who adds that "It is an illusion to think that if a problem exists in France it does not exist in Belgium."
Click here for further information about this cooperation, click here.
