Informal Meeting of Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs
Ministers discussed modern technologies and security and the need for better coordination on European level, its use in the area of border protection, migration control and asylum policy and development of Schengen Information System II.
Meeting took place on Thursday January 15th in Prague. Besides the ministers from EU member countries, the representatives of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey also participated on the meeting in Congressional center in Prague. The Minister of the Interior Ivan Langer brought up several topics for discussion concerning the Czech priorities for the Presidency.
At first the ministers discussed modern technologies and security. Modern technologies are dynamically developing but also easily accessible by criminals and terrorists. Therefore it is necessary to better coordinate their use on European level and ensure updated overview of use already accepted instruments in use, what has proven useful, where cooperation lacks and which direction should we focus on in the future.
The subject of modern technologies stayed in discussion – this time its use in the area of border protection, migration control and asylum policy. The Czech Presidency will in cooperation with other member countries attempt to simplify, make more transparent and mutually connect with existing and projected measures implementing high-tech modern technologies.
During a work lunch came the Minister of the Interior Ivan Langer with the topic of improving international protection of children. The Czech Presidency informed about the registration of a new European domain www.alertchild.eu for exchange of information about early alert warning about missing children, systems so called Child Alert. The ministers are convinced that the Schengen Information System should be put in a better use when searching for missing children and the cooperation in the fight against illegal content on the Internet and against crimes committed on children done on the Internet should be also improved.
At the afternoon meeting the ministers discussed the development of Schengen Information System II and agreed that the project is in crisis, which needs to be immediately solved. The plan of the Czech Presidency consists of series mutually connected measures. Its part is besides activation actual project also creating a backup solution. Final decision about the aim of SIS II will be made in June 2009 at the latest.