Footnote to my posts #977 & #998(*):
(*) Message 15624481
Antoine Duquesne's visit to the EU candidate countries
Category: Press Releases by the Belgian EU Presidency
Brief summary: The Interior Minister met recently with a number of his Central and Eastern European counterparts with a view to strengthening bilateral cooperation and in preparation for the forthcoming Belgian Presidency.
Description: The Interior Minister met recently with a number of his Central and Eastern European counterparts with a view to strengthening bilateral cooperation and in preparation for the forthcoming Belgian Presidency. In recent months Mr Antoine Duquesne has visited Bulgaria (26 November), Slovakia (15 January), Hungary (4 April), Poland (14 May) and Estonia (11 June). He has also been visited by Slovenia's Interior Minister on 15 January.
The purpose of the minister's meetings with officials from EU candidate states was twofold. Firstly, he is eager to intensify bilateral police cooperation between Belgium and the countries in question in order to build a more effective barrier to the various forms of organised crime developing across the continent. The bilateral talks focused in particular on the trade in human beings. The respective ministers all signed bilateral cooperation agreements in this regard and approved action plans for their implementation. These plans mostly concern meetings of police experts for the exchange of experience and the organisation of joint training exercises.
Secondly, the meetings were held to prepare for the Belgian Presidency, most notably in the context of the EU enlargement process. Mr Duquesne took the opportunity to present the broad guidelines of his programme and emphasised the various meetings and activities that the ministers and other officials from the candidate states will be invited to in the autumn. These include, in particular, the debate in the Justice and Home Affairs Council on the trade in human beings, the International Conference on Migration, the Police Chiefs' Task Force and Operation High Impact (joint police operation to be organised on the future borders of an enlarged EU).
Antoine Duquesne also visited border posts in candidate countries in order to assess local authorities' ability to effectively control the movement of people and goods. This capability will be taken into consideration when candidate states' assessment reports are drawn up.
In addition to his tour of the candidate states, Mr Duquesne also visited Russia in April 2001. His mission included the implementation of the bilateral police cooperation agreement and, above all, identifying ways of improving the Russian authorities' repatriation procedure for Russian nationals illegally residing in Belgium.
Date: 21/06/2001
eu2001.be;
OK... I was dead wrong on the operation's codename! But heck, I'm probably right on the schedule --summertime...
Gus. |
