Uitkomsten van eerste dag van informele bijeenkomst van Raad van Justitie en Binnenlandse Zaken (en)
Informal Meeting of Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs took place in Prague today, on 15 January 2009.
Among others, the representatives of the following Member States participated in the meeting at the Prague Congress Centre: Switzerland, Norway, Island, Liechtenstein, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey. Minister of the Interior of the Czech Republic Ivan Langer proposed several main topics for discussion to his counterparts.
At first, the Ministers addressed the issue of modern technologies and security. Modern technologies are developing rapidly and they are easily accessible to criminals and terrorists. It is not acceptable to allow criminal organisations to gain any advantage over security agencies in this respect. Therefore it is important to coordinate the use of modern technology on the EU level more efficiently. The Member States agreed on the European approach that needs to be characterised by three key values: safety, freedom of movement and privacy protection. This approach will represent the basic political framework of further discussions of this topic. The Czech Presidency is determined to begin by an inventory of the present state of utilisation of modern technologies in the EU. The Ministers also agreed that it is necessary to ensure overview of practical functioning of already approved instruments; what is effective and where, on the other hand, cooperation is no longer sufficient and which direction should we take in the future.
The Ministers addressed the topic of modern technologies also in their next discussion. However, this time they focused on their utilisation in the area of border protection, and control of migration and asylum policy. The Member States agreed that in the area of migration, asylum policy and border protection they are faced with significant tasks that can be fulfilled by application of already existing modern technologies or technologies that are being developed and planned. The Czech Presidency will cooperate with other Member States of the EU and with the European Commission to ensure simplification, transparency, organisation and interconnection of existing and proposed measures that utilize the most recent information technologies, and thus to ensure higher effectivity of these mechanisms.
During a working lunch Minister of the Interior Ivan Langer presented another significant issue – the improvement of international protection of children. The Member States agreed on the need for improved cooperation in protection of children, particularly in relation to the fight of child pornography and other illegal Internet activities. The Czech Presidency informed the European Commission about the registration of a new European domain www.alertchild.eu for exchange of information on systems of prompt alerts during search for missing children, so called Child Alert systems. The Ministers also agreed that the use of the Schengen Information System for the search for missing children should be improved and that police cooperation in fighting illegal Internet contents and crimes committed on children via the Internet should intensify.
At the afternoon part of the meeting the Ministers discussed the issue of development of the second-generation Schengen Information System. Today’s meeting was significant. “We have just addressed the present situation in the development of SIS II with all EU and Schengen Ministers and we have agreed that this project is, in fact, in a crisis that needs to be solved immediately. The Czech Presidency determined the solution of the crisis of this project as one of its priorities and it will make maximum effort to revive it and transfer it to the Swedish Presidency in a healthy state”, stated Minister of the Interior Ivan Langer at a press conference. The Ministers supported the plan of the Czech Presidency that consists of a series of interconnected measures. Beside the revival of the current project, preparation of a back-up solution is also part of this plan. The final decision on the direction of the SIS will be adopted no later than June 2009. The Schengen information system is one of the most important tools of cooperation for states that have cancelled internal border checks and the Czech Presidency feels that its modernisation and inclusion of new functions is a key issue.
At the concluding press conference Minister of the Interior Ivan Langer positively appraised the whole meeting and expressed his satisfaction with its results.
Video recording of the press conference
You can find more information in the calendar.