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The Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union has introduced topics related to further cooperation and exchange of views with the United States in the fields of combating terrorism, migration management and visa policy on the agenda of the joint EU and U.S. high-level Meeting on Justice and Home Affairs.
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"In the context of Romania's holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the EU-U.S. Senior Officials Meeting took place at the Palace of Parliament on Thursday, with the main objective of exchanging views on relevant issues in the fields of justice and home affairs. The meeting also aimed at preparing the agenda of the ministerial meeting of the EU-U.S. Dialogue, to be held in June," a press release issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI) sent to AGERPRES on Thursday reports.
The EU-U.S. Dialogue on the External Dimension of Justice and Home Affairs is a traditional one and takes place on a semi-annual basis during each rotating Presidency at the EU Council.
"As regards the internal affairs dimension, on the agenda of the meeting, the Romanian Presidency introduced topics related to the continuation of cooperation and exchange of views with the US in the fields of counter-terrorism, migration management and visa policy," reads the release.
With regard to the fight against terrorism, discussions were held on the state of the EU-US PNR (Passenger Name Record) agreement, as well as on countering terrorist online terrorism, threats to security and information sharing.
In respect to migration and visa policy, issues related to combating smuggling, trafficking in migrants as well as the US visa policy in relation to the five EU Member States with no visa reciprocity.
"As far as the judicial dimension is concerned, the agenda of the meeting provided a framework for discussions on several topics of common interest, such as the resilience of electoral systems, security and freedom in cyberspace, cross-border access to electronic evidence," the press release said.
In the area of international judicial cooperation, existing challenges have been highlighted, with regard to third countries, included. The data protection field has also been addressed, from the perspective of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the implementation of the Umbrella Agreement.
"On behalf of the EU, the participants in the dialogue were the Presidency-in-Office of the EU Council, the European Commission, the European External Action Service, the General Secretariat of the Council, EUROPOL, EUROJUST, the EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator and the forthcoming Council Presidency, namely Finland, as observer. Participating on behalf of the United States were US senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the State Department," the release mentions.
The meeting in Bucharest was chaired by Catalin Necula, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Sebastian Constantine Costea, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice, and Alexandru Victor Micula, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At the same time, the meeting allowed for the presentation of the program of the future Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2019.
AGERPRES .
