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:

• The First Asylum Package, a package of legislative proposals to recast the reception conditions directive, and the Dublin and EURODAC regulations;
• Illegal migration, particularly with an emphasis on the abuse of the legal residence status and practical cooperation in this area;
• Readmission and visa facilitation, or else agreements with Third Countries concerning the readmission of their citizens who do not have permission to remain in EU territory and agreements concerning simplified visa issuances to those Third Country citizens.

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.
   
 
Markéta Matlochová
Spokesperson for Czech Presidency of the EU, Ministry of the Interior

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