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The Czech Republic's foreign policy priorities include EU membership. On 31st March 1998, the official bilateral inter-governmental conference of the EU - the Czech Republic on the Czech Republic's accession to the EU (hereinafter IGC) commenced. By the end of 1999 the Czech Republic submitted its position documents to all the then negotiated chapters by which it formally confirmed that it was prepared to talk about all those chapters. To date talks have confirmed good preparation from the side of the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic is fully comparable with the other candidate countries.
The year 1999 represented a significant turning point in the history of European integration. The Amsterdam Agreement came into force on 1st May 1999. This agreement modifies the Agreement on Foundation of the European Community and the Agreement on the European Union. Those modifications related also to the issues falling under the 3rd pillar of the EU, which is the co-operation in justice and internal matters. The Agreement added to the current objectives of the Union another one: “to preserve and develop the Union as a space of freedom, security and rights in which free movement of persons is guaranteed in connection to appropriate measures relating to the external border checks, immigration, the right for asylum and prevention and combat of crimes”. Another important modification is the integration of Schengen Acquis to the frame of the EU. The extraordinary summit of the EU was held in Tampere on 15th and 16th October 1999. The principal topics discussed were immigration and asylum policies, possibilites to fight crime and the development of the European legal space. The main task was to create integrated immigration and asylum policies for the extended Union.
In February and March 1999 screening talks were held for the Chapter 24 “Co-operation in justice and internal matters; Schengen”. With regards to the requirements of the European Commissions, the Ministry of Interior filled in updated screening tables for the part Schengen in November 1999. The Government approved the Position Document of the Czech Republic related to this Chapter. The document was officially submitted to the European Union. It says that the Czech Republic is ready to take over and implement by the reference date of accession to the EU all relevant regulations of EU/EC relating to the above mentioned Chapter and at the same time the required institutional infrastructure needed to perform and enforce acquis in this area will be established and will be operational by the date of the Czech Republic's accession to the EU. The only exception is adaptation of the international airport Prague - Ruzyně to the Schengen standards. In terms of this issue the Czech Republic applies for an interim period up to 2005. (This matter is within the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport and Communications). The Ministry of Interior also participated in screening of other negotiated Chapters, in particular Chapter 2 “Free Movement of Persons” (for which the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is responsible), Chapter 1 “Free Movement of Goods”, Chapter 3 “Free Movement of Services” and Chapter 9 “Transport”.
In October 1999 the European Commission issued a Regular Report evaluating the Czech Republic's progress in the pre-accession process, which was mostly critical to the Ministry of Interior. The only obviously positively appraised part was the part dealing with drug issues. Adoption of the Amendment to the State Citizenship Act was assessed positively as well. The report criticises the low restriction of corruption, the insufficient protection of the state borders and fighting illegal migration, putting the Czech visa policy to the compliance with the EU visa policy, enforcing law in intellectual property right, personnel resources and technical equipment for the bodies enforcing laws, etc. A slow legislative progress in particular absence of the new asylum act, new act on foreigner residence and new police act was criticised. The Ministry of Interior prepared a detail analysis of this Report, which became the base for setting the new non-legislative and legislative tasks.
The Ministry of Interior elaborated in 1999 and updated Chapter 3.8 “Justice and the Interior”, The National Programme for Preparing the Czech Republic for European Union Membership and other parts of the National Programme relating to the responsibilities of the Ministry of Interior. The National Programme was approved by the Government Resolution No. 474 on 17th May 1999.
The Ministry of Interior continued implementing the Phare programme projects. Within 1997 Phare Project the contracts for delivery of machine-readable documents in the Czech Republic amounting EUR 2 million were signed. EUR 2 million were used to build a model working site for the immigration and border police. The implementation of those projects will contribute to more efficient passport checks at the border and at the same time to lower number of illegal border crossings or to better protection of the future EU border.
At the end of 1999 the negotiations relating to 2000 Phare Project in co-operation with the representatives of the European Committee commenced. The Ministry of Interior should get three projects, the topics of which correspond to 1999 Phare Projects. They are: To Strengthen Fighting against Organised Crime and the Schengen Information System and Border Protection. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for the third project “Fighting against Money Laundering”.
The elaborated multilateral treaties concern the European Agreement on the control of the acquisition and possession of firearms by individuals, the European Agreement on the transfer of responsibility for refugees, the Agreement on the unauthorised maritime trade accompanying Article 17 of the UN Convention against the illegal trade in narcotic and psychotropic substances.71) The texts of the Agreements on co-operation and mutual assistance in breakdowns, natural disasters and other extraordinary events were completed. The access of the Czech Government to the Agreement on establishment and activities of ICMPD was negotiated.
The OECD Agreement on fighting corruption of foreign public representatives in the international business transactions was ratified. (It was agreed upon in Paris on 17th December 1997. It came into force in the Czech Republic on 21st March 2000). The European Council Criminal-Law Agreement on Corruption agreed on in Strasbourg on 27th January 1999 was signed by the Czech Republic on 15th October 1999 and it was discussed and approved by Parliament in February 2000.
Since 1st July 1999 the Czech Republic has become the member country of Nairobi Agreement (the International Agreement on mutual administrative assistance in prevention, investigation and suppression of customs offences, Nairobi, 9th June 1997). A range of agreements concerned co-operation of customs authorities.
The development of the international police co-operation is considered to be a key task. The priorities aim to the fight against increasing activities of international organised crime. Therefore the Ministry of Interior will send police liaison officers mainly to those countries, where their mission will be the most efficient in terms of fighting such a type of crime. In compliance with the Agreement on sending liaison police officers to the embassies of the Czech Republic and their activities72) police liaisons are being prepared to be send to our embassies in Bratislava and in Moscow in 2000, to Kiev in 2001. The sending of a police liaison to Germany to work in Europole (as soon as the rules of Europole enable that) is also taken into account.
At the same time co-operation with and assistance to other countries continued in the form of courses and professional training. Study activities and exchange of information aimed especially at money laundering, training of social assistants (street-wrokers), etc. Study attachment in England (under ADACS 1999 programme) concerned selection, professional training and stabilisation of prison guards, in France it was prison health care, the visit to Canada was focused on prison legislation and a range of other international contacts were maintained in prison service issues. A range of conferences and seminars focused on financial crimes and corruption punishments were held.
The representatives of the Czech Republic develop co-operation with the international security and political organisation, in particular with the European Council, NATO, OECD and UN. They are also members of a number of international task force groups.73)