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Short news:
11th May, Prague
The minister of the Interior Martin Pecina and the Minister of Industry and Trade Vladimír Tošovský met the Commissioner for information society and media Viviane Reding. Martin Pecina has informed her for example about the conferences “eID and public registers” and “Safer Internet for Children” that were organized by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic and thanked her for a fruitful cooperation. They also discussed the preparations of the TTE council taking place in Luxembourg on June 12th 2009.
The minister of the Interior Martin Pecina and the Minister of Industry and Trade Vladimír Tošovský met the Commissioner for information society and media Viviane Reding. Martin Pecina has informed her for example about the conferences “eID and public registers” and “Safer Internet for Children” that were organized by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic and thanked her for a fruitful cooperation. They also discussed the preparations of the TTE council taking place in Luxembourg on June 12th 2009.
7th May, Bramshill,
In the seat of the European educational agency CEPOL (European Police College) in Bramshill, Great Britain, there was held the 15th Strategy Committee meeting. The meeting was chaired by JUDr. Helena Tomková, the director of Education and Police Schools Administration Department of the Czech Ministry of the Interior. This Commission is composed of the representatives of the states which chaired or will chair the Presidency of EU. A participant in the discussion was also the president of the CEPOL Training and Research Committee. The other participants were the representatives of CEPOL Secretariat headed by the director. The main topics were points from meeting of Budget and Administration Committee and „enlarged“ Troika. The Director of Department chaired this meeting in the second half of April. The topics were for example financial managment agencies, the results of managment for the year 2008 and one of the main priorities – the new structure of the agency.
In the seat of the European educational agency CEPOL (European Police College) in Bramshill, Great Britain, there was held the 15th Strategy Committee meeting. The meeting was chaired by JUDr. Helena Tomková, the director of Education and Police Schools Administration Department of the Czech Ministry of the Interior. This Commission is composed of the representatives of the states which chaired or will chair the Presidency of EU. A participant in the discussion was also the president of the CEPOL Training and Research Committee. The other participants were the representatives of CEPOL Secretariat headed by the director. The main topics were points from meeting of Budget and Administration Committee and „enlarged“ Troika. The Director of Department chaired this meeting in the second half of April. The topics were for example financial managment agencies, the results of managment for the year 2008 and one of the main priorities – the new structure of the agency.
28th–29th April, Prague
Within the Czech EU Presidency, an official meeting of the working group of the European Forum of the Official Gazette for Indexing and Searching took place on the prestigious grounds of the Spiritka estate.
Within the Czech EU Presidency, an official meeting of the working group of the European Forum of the Official Gazette for Indexing and Searching took place on the prestigious grounds of the Spiritka estate.
28thApril , Prague
A meeting of Troika took place on 27th April, 2009 at the Lichtenstein Palace at Prague’s Kampa.
A meeting of Troika took place on 27th April, 2009 at the Lichtenstein Palace at Prague’s Kampa.
27th– 28th April, Tallinn
Under the patronage of CZ PRES, the EU Ministerial Conference on Critical Information Infrastructure Protection took place. The leader of the Czech Presidency delegation was represented by Mgr. Lenka Ptáčková Melicharová, Deputy Minister for European Affairs
In her speech, the Deputy Minister compared the protection of critical information infrastructures to the protection of health that should be focused on three primary areas: prevention, diagnostics and treatment.
Under the patronage of CZ PRES, the EU Ministerial Conference on Critical Information Infrastructure Protection took place. The leader of the Czech Presidency delegation was represented by Mgr. Lenka Ptáčková Melicharová, Deputy Minister for European Affairs
In her speech, the Deputy Minister compared the protection of critical information infrastructures to the protection of health that should be focused on three primary areas: prevention, diagnostics and treatment.
27th April, Prague
Bilateral negotiations took place at the hotel Intercontinental where the Macedonian Minister of Home Affairs Gordana Jankulovska and the Czech Minister Ivan Langer signed a cooperation memorandum.
Bilateral negotiations took place at the hotel Intercontinental where the Macedonian Minister of Home Affairs Gordana Jankulovska and the Czech Minister Ivan Langer signed a cooperation memorandum.
27th April, Prague
Bilateral negotiations took place at the hotel Intercontinental with Bosnia and Herzegovina, the main topic being visa liberalisation.
Bilateral negotiations took place at the hotel Intercontinental with Bosnia and Herzegovina, the main topic being visa liberalisation.
Troika EU-USA
| On 28th April the meeting of the Troika’s Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs for the European Union and the United States took place. The European Union was represented by the Interior Minister Ivan Langer, the Minister of Justice Jiří Pospíšil, the EU Vice President and Commissioner in the fields of Justice, Freedom and Security Jacques Barrot and the Presidents of Europol, Frontex and a representative of Eurojust. The representatives from Sweden, which is to take over the EU Presidency from the Czech Republic, the Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask and the Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy Tobias Billström were also present at the meeting. The United States were represented by the Minister of Justice Eric Holder and the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Jane Holl Lute. This Troika meeting has been the first of this kind since the launch of the new administration in the USA. “Today’s negotiations are a continuation of our first meeting in the USA. This is the first meeting of the Ministerial Troika we have organised after the launch of the new US administration. We are establishing new relationships with our ‘old’ partners. I am glad that we have  |
 been efficiently cooperating in a number of areas.” said the Interior Minister Ivan Langer. Several main issues were discussed during the meeting. New transatlantic relationships have been debated, and the EU has acknowledged the significance of the USA as a key partner for the EU in the areas of justice and home affairs, as well as justice and freedom and security. Questions were also raised regarding the fight against terrorism. The issue of Guantanamo was discussed and the USA have acknowledged their responsibility in regards to this question and stated that they believed that the solution can be most efficiently found through cooperating with their partners and therefore they are prepared to share most of their information. Apart from Guantanamo, the debate revolved around the question of the fight against the misuse of the Internet to spread terrorism, which is one of the Ministry of Home Affairs’ priorities during the course of the Czech EU Presidency. Further, the questions concerning visa-free access to the USA and border security, child protection and data exchange were discussed. Towards the end of the conference, Sweden introduced its priorities in the area of justice and home affairs during its forthcoming EU Presidency. |
Building Migration Partnerships
| On 27-28 April 2009 the Ministerial Conference for Building Migration was organised in Prague. The main aim of the Conference, which took place in the Žofín Palace, was to strengthen mutual cooperation established on the principle of partnership among the participating countries when controlling migration. This conference was the largest event organized by the Ministry of Interior as well as one of the largest meetings during the course of Czech Presidency. Except for EU representatives, delegates from Schengen countries, Southeast Europe, East Europe, Central Asia and Turkey joined in the Building Migration Partnership Conference; in total 17 Ministers from 50 participating countries attended. The Interior Minister Ivan Langer launched the Conference with the following words: “I would like to address why we have organised this Ministerial Conference in the first place. In the last couple of years, the overall migration situation in our countries has significantly changed: we are facing new migration challenges, especially in the areas of fighting illegal migration, handling legal migration more efficiently, and last but not least in the area of integration. We have taken significant political decisions that embody clear political answers to these migration problems both on national and regional level.  |
Nevertheless, this new situation represents a real challenge as well as an opportunity to reinforce the cooperation between all participating countries in the wider European region. We have chosen the symbol of a Bridge to mark this Conference. The Bridge is supported by five pillars that symbolize the five common topics of the Conference. I believe that we will be able to create a bridge that will cross the gap between us and will connect us, a bridge supported by five strong pillars, a bridge that will embody equal partnership.” The five pillars of the bridge are: the fight against illegal migration, readmission and reintegration, work migration, integration and migration, and development.
It was a historical moment indeed, signified by the passing of the ‘Prague Joint Declaration on Migration’. The conference was closed by the Vice President Jacques Barrot who announced to the participants that the European Commission is prepared to finance further steps resulting from the declaration adopted that day. However, the approval of the Declaration is only the beginning of efforts to solve the migration question. In its report, Hungary announced that a follow-up conference during the period of Hungarian Presidency in 2011 will take place to assess the results achieved after the Conference in the Czech Republic. |
Interview with Deputy Minister, Lenka Ptáčková Melicharová
 One of the priorities of the Ministry of the Interior for the EU Presidency is the “agenda of internal relationships“. What progress did we make in this area in the past four months of our EU Presidency? The issues of external and internal security are essentially interconnected. That is why the area of internal relationships was put among the Ministry’s priorities for the Czech EU Presidency. Building a safe Europe cannot be even imagined without practical cooperation with third countries and with international organizations. The external dimension is actually reflected in all the areas of home affairs, whether it is migration or asylum policy or the fight against terrorism and organized crime. A particular example is the deepening cooperation between the EU and the USA. The EU perceives the coming of the new American administration of president Barack Obama as a unique opportunity of starting a new era of transatlantic relationships. In this spirit the EU –USA ministerial Troika for Justice and Home Affairs met in Prague on April 28. At this meeting a lot of current issues were discussed, such as the fight against terrorism, EU’s cooperation in the matter of closing the Guantanamo detention centre, visa policy (because the U.S. visa duty still applies to the citizens of five EU countries) or data protection and information exchange between the EU and the USA. In the next few days we will be conducting similar negotiations with Russia and Ukraine. I hope that the atmosphere and the results of the negotiations will be the same as in the case of the USA. Almost for months ago, in your interview for the second issue of CZ PRESS NEWS, you mentioned three ministerial conferences that were to take place in April (Registers and eIdentity, Safe Internet and Migration Partnerships). How do you evaluate them now that they are over? After the “touchstone” January meeting of the JHA Council, all the three events were real tests of the preparedness of the Czech team at the Ministry of the Interior. It is a pity that no loud HURRAH and THANKS can be heard and no pride or excitement can be felt from the lines … Everything went excellently. Let me share at least a brief summary of the outputs of these events with the readers even though the symbols of the declaration, a bridge and a flower, are missing here. The main objective of the “eID and Public Registers“ conference, which took place on April 7, 2009 in Hradec Králové, was to support the interoperability of the individual national systems so that the eGovernment services can be used from anywhere in Europe regardless of state borders. We thus made another step in building a “Europe without barriers” and we helped to remove the obstacles that prevent people from using the public administration electronic services (called eGovernment) throughout the individual member states. As far as the conference “Safer Internet for Children“ is concerned – one of our key priorities in the area of home affairs was the improvement |
of the protection of children and this conference contributed to its fulfilment. At this conference the representatives of the EU countries could have discussions with their colleagues from Switzerland, Norway and the USA and with the representatives of international organizations as well as with the representatives of industry, the public sector, and non-profit organizations. The importance of this event also lies in the involvement of all the relevant participants, especially of internet service providers, mobile carriers and social networks. The resulting Prague Declaration stated the framework of further cooperation of all the key players in the effort to make the Internet safer. The ministerial conference called “Building Migration Partnerships“ was the largest event of the Presidency organized by the Ministry of the Interior and one of the largest events of the Presidency as such. It was attended by the representatives of almost 50 countries, the representatives of the EU and its agencies, and of a lot of international organizations. The conference started the process of strengthening mutual relationships among the countries involved towards better and more intensive cooperation based on partnership principles. The principles of this cooperation were included in the joint “Prague Declaration on Migration“. It is a breakthrough in the approach to migration for a lot of its participants. We managed to transfer the European approach to migration to our eastern and south-eastern partners. Another achievement is that even those countries that have serious political problems with each other were able to agree on the common text. By the way, this migration conference represents other tangible evidence of the fact that the work on our priority of internal relationships brings its fruit. There are not even two whole months left before the end of the Czech EU Presidency. Don’t you think it is almost time for a general evaluation? Or are there still any important negotiations lying ahead? It is true that a large part of the Presidency is over and, of course, we are looking back and evaluating what we have managed to achieve and where we haven’t been very successful. However, there are still almost two months left, i.e. a third of the Presidency! The final stage has brought a change in the post of the minister. I am sure that we will successfully manage the difficult final stage with our new minister. There are a lot of very important events lying ahead. As I mentioned before, in the middle of May we will be chairing the EU – Russia ministerial Troika. At the end of May there will be two ministerial meetings at the same time – the G8 meeting and the Salzburg Forum conference. Immediately after that the Minister of the Interior will be chairing the EU – Ukraine Troika. Of course, the highlight will be the Justice and Home Affairs Council in June, whose agenda includes a lot of important topics and which is crucial for our success in the area of home affairs. So, please, keep your fingers still crossed for us! At the very end, let me thank Minister Ivan Langer for everything he did for the success of the Czech Presidency and for the whole Czech Republic. He gained enormous prestige within the EU and he was of great support to all of us in the Presidency team. Thank you, Minister! |
Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum
meets at the Castle of Zbiroh
| From 5 - 6 May 2009, an informal meeting of the Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum took place at the Castle of Zbiroh in the Czech Republic. After the Council of Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs and the COREPER II, this Committee is the highest level of the Council where issues of migration, asylum and protection of external borders are discussed. Although this Committee usually meets regularly in Brussels, it has become a tradition for this Committee to meet once during a Presidency on an informal basis in the presiding country. This informal meeting is a good opportunity to discuss serious and strategic issues at high level, but also a possibility for the presiding country to show others a bit of its tradition and culture. Therefore, this meeting was extremely important for the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU. The preparatory team of the Asylum and Migration Policy Department of the Czech Interior Ministry lead by the Committee Chair Ms. Andrea Fáberová took a number of weeks to prepare the event programme, discussion panels, leisure activities and a cultural programme. Individual experts from the Czech Interior Ministry participated in this event, as well as the Deputy Minister of the Interior for European Affairs Ms. Lenka Ptáčková Melicharová, Director of the Asylum and Migration Policy Department Mr. Tomáš Haišman a Mayor of the Town of Zbiroh Mr. Jiří Pražský. The following are the main issues that were discussed there by Heads of immigration |
services of EU Member States and of the Schengen Area:
This event is considered successful mainly because the debates allowed for clarifications of many Member States’ positions concerning certain fundamental issues. It was also possible to find a new direction for the Czech and the following Presidencies to take with regard to the individual issues. Nonetheless, the event’s success was also visible from the positive reactions of the delegates concerning the organization, as well as the content.
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The Czech EU Presidency supported further activities for safe Internet
| After the Ministerial Conference ‘Safer Internet for Children’ which took place on 20th April, 2009 in Prague, the Czech Presidency focused on another aspect of the safety of information and communication technologies and took over the patronage of the Critical Information Infrastructure Conference in the Estonian city of Tallinn on 27-28 April, 2009. The leader of the delegation representing the Czech EU Presidency at the Conference was Mgr. Lenka Ptáčková Melicharová, Deputy Minister for European Affairs who opened the meeting of ministers from individual member countries with the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding. In her speech, the Deputy Minister compared the protection of a critical information infrastructure to the protection of health that should be focused on three primary areas: prevention, diagnostics and treatment. She said; “Not dissimilar to a sick human body, good prevention and early diagnosis cannot always protect us from the impact of attacks whose initiators very often posses better equipment and ammunition than we do. Joint practise and speedy information exchange  |
can however facilitate healing during these attacks when, as for example during natural disasters, the solidarity of other member states is absolutely essential.” Towards the end of the Ministerial Meeting, the Estonian Minister for Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts urged all member states as well as European Commission to provide their support as soon as possible to organize a joint practice focused on information safety and protection against cyber-attacks. The Conference itself was opened by the Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves who mentioned cyber-attacks Estonia had been forced to face two years earlier. After hearing his speech, the participants could listen to a talk given by the Interior Minister Ivan Langer who said: “The attacks that happened two years ago did not have solely negative implications as they also taught us about prevention. This is the reason why the Estonian critical information infrastructure, including government servers, is much less vulnerable today. I see it as a good thing that this Conference is therefore taking place in the capital of a country that thanks to having first-hand experience can provide advice on how to fortify the security of the internet not only on a national but also on a European level.” The Czech EU Presidency is willing to further continue the debate focused on the safety and security of the Internet and modern technologies and to use the conclusions drawn at the Conference at the Council of Ministers for telecommunications meeting that will take place on June 12th , 2009 in Luxembourg. |