Fiches Belges

Cross-border hot pursuit is envisaged in Art. 41 of the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 and is applicable measure in Bulgaria as a form of international police-to-police cooperation. Cross - border hot pursuit is a persecution of a person caught in the act of committing or of participating in a specified offence (envisaged in The Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 or extraditable offence), that has started from the territory of one state and continued into the territory of another. The measure is also applied in case where the persecuted person has escaped from a place of detention or while serving a sentence of imprisonment. The pursuing officers have the right to continue the persecution from their national territory into the territory of Bulgaria without prior permission and time restrictions only in urgent circumstances where it is not possible the Bulgarian authorities to be notified in advance or where they are unable to reach the scene in time to take over the pursuit. The pursuing officers are obliged to contact the competent Bulgarian authorities at the moment of crossing the border at the latest. The persecution has to be ceased when the Bulgarian authorities so request. On request of the pursuing officers the Bulgarian authorities detain the pursued person in order to establish the person's identity or to make an arrest.

Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 between the Governments of the States of the Benelux Economic Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic on the gradual abolition of checks at their common borders - Article 41 Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Government of the Republic of Greece for Cross-Border Police Cooperation Agreement between the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Estonia for Cooperation in Border Management and Police Cooperation in Criminal matters Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Government of Romania on Cross-Border Police Cooperation in Criminal Matters

As a form of international police-to-police cooperation, respectively the competent authorities for the application of the measure for the Bulgarian side are as follows: General Directorate National Police, General Directorate Fight Against Organized Crime, General Directorate Border Police and Directorate Migration of the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior and the territorial structures of this ministry. As a central authority acts Directorate International Operational Cooperation of the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior.

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The pursuing officers do not have the right to apprehend the pursued person. They can detain the person only in urgent cases and under specific rules - if no request to cease the hot pursuit is made and if the competent Bulgarian authorities are unable to intervene quickly enough, the pursuing officers may detain the person pursued until the Bulgarian officers, who must be informed immediately, are able to establish the person's identity or make an arrest.