The Informal meeting with the USA
Prague, 6 th February 2009 - The high-level informal meeting between the EU and the USA took place in Prague on 5th and 6th February.
This meeting was on a directorial expert level. It was led on behalf of the EU by the delegation of the Czech Presidency (The Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in cooperation with the representatives of the Council of the EU, the European Commission, Frontex, Eurojust, Europol and the future presidency of the Sweden.
The subjects of the meeting were topics of a long-term cooperation between the EU and the USA. One of the points of this meeting was also the preparation for the meeting of Troika, which will take place in April 2009, also in Prague.
During the first block of the meeting the participants discussed the exchange of information concerning the topic of the missing children warning system (so-called Child Alert). The representatives of the Ministry of the Interior informed the American side about their activities in this area and invited the American experts to a conference, which will take place on 19th May 2009 in Prague. This conference will be focused on sharing the best work experiences in the area of establishing and running missing children alert system in the EU member countries and the USA.
During the second block of the meeting the participants discussed the question of abusing the Internet to help extremism and terrorism. The delegates agreed that the Internet is creating a positive place for a free communication, access to information and expressing ideas. But the same it could be and in fact it is misused by criminals who are using the Internet as a mean for their illegal activities. Therefore it is necessary to take an uncompromising action to stop these criminal acts. In the context of this situation the member countries of the EU and the USA should start a closer cooperation in terms of sharing their experience in this field and looking for other possible tools which would help to prevent and punish this phenomenon.
During the third block of the meeting representatives of both sides exchanged their information about new developments in the area of the visa policy and securing the borders. It was claimed that there is a progress in the area of visa reciprocity policy, where 7 member states of the EU newly entered the Visa Waiver Regime. The Presidency expressed the importance of achieving complete visa reciprocity.
In the end of the meeting a discussion about cooperation in the area of the civil justice took place.
Markéta Matlochová
Spokesperson