Following the call by the Italian Ministry of Justice for the 26 European member states in November 2017, the employees of the Department of Penal Law, Criminology, Criminalistics and Forensic Sciences at the MBU Faculty of Law have joined the realization of the important European projects. Acceptance, personal and institutional invitations to participate in international projects "DERAD" and "TRAINING AID" in the conditions applicable in the Slovak Republic allow us to be in activities aimed at prevention of radicalization in prisons within the EU.

The projects are funded by the European Commission through Directorate - General for Justice and Directorate - General for Home Affairs and under the auspices of the Italian Ministry of Justice, as Project Coordinator.

We set up an educational program, a part of the project activities, in the form of 6 training modules and the HERMES e-platform to share experience and good practice in the subject. Attending the educational program and participating in the validation of the trainings, adaptation of their content to national conditions will allow the professional preparation of 50 experts from 26 EU member states.  During the years 2018-2019, approximately 2000 experts will be prepared: prison and judicial guards corps, police corps, court staff, prison psychologists, officers in selected intelligence services, social workers, probation officers and mediators; employees of non-profit organizations who, in their expertise, have a real possibility to apply the information obtained in practice.

On 20 February 2018 we became part of the European professional community, which creates other real activities to increase the protection of EU society and citizens, a support to security-legal awareness, thus fulfilling MBU's long-term goals in developing foreign co-operation and strengthening the international acceptance of our work. Through this form of project participation, MBU makes Slovakia and Banská Bystrica more visible in the European agenda of creating an area of freedom, security and justice.

Dr. h. c. prof. Ing. Miroslav KELEMEN, DrSc., MBA, LL.M., Director of The Criminological and Criminalistic Research Center at the Faculty of Law of Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica