The first day of the Informal Meeting of Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs took place in Prague

Informal Meeting of Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs took place in Prague today, on 15 January 2009.

Apart from Interior Ministers of the Member States, the representatives of the following countries also took part in the meeting in the Prague Congress Centre: Switzerland, Norway, Island, Lichtenstein, Croatia, FYROM and Turkey. Minister of the Interior of the Czech Republic Ivan Langer proposed several principal topics for discussion to his counterparts.

At first, the Ministers addressed the topic of modern technologies and security, including the issue of information exchange and its impact on security, mobility and privacy, including protection of personal information. The Ministers have agreed that this rapidly developing area demands particular attention, unified system access on the EU level and long term efforts. They also agreed that all steps need to be commenced by analysis of the present state of modern technology use, particularly in the area of information exchange, and that the obtained results need to be projected into the preparations of the new plan for the domain of justice and home affairs for the years 2010 – 2014.

The Ministers addressed the topic of modern technologies also in their next discussion. However, this time they focused on their utilization in the area of border protection, and control of migration and asylum policy. In this discussion the Ministers expressed their opinions on the fundamental import of introduction of biometric elements to travel documents, with respect to outside border crossing. Within this discussion the Ministers also addressed the highly relevant topic of illegal migration and they agreed that a truly complex migration policy demands maximum utilization of all available information and its consideration while applying practical measures that focus not only on the fight with the phenomenon of illegal migration.

During a work lunch Minister of the Interior Ivan Langer presented another significant issue – the improvement of international protection of children. The Czech Presidency introduced its initiative, the creation of a website for systems of prompt warning during search for missing children, which was supported by the present Member States. 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 that is presently facing problems and delays that make it impossible to keep the expected deadline for its launch in September 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 modernization and inclusion of new functions is a key issue and it pledges to exhort maximum effort for elimination of its extant problems.

In the last discussion of the day the Ministers addressed another fundamental topic of our time that is undoubtedly the issue of drugs and fight against drug abuse. The Ministers supported the Czech Presidency in its efforts to increase effectivity of the approach of the EU to anti-drug policy. At the concluding press conference Minister of the Interior Ivan Langer positively appraised the whole meeting and expressed his satisfaction with its results.