Eu Presidency: meeting on internal security in Bruxelles
The three-day meeting of the Standing Committee on Internal Security (COSI) chaired by Deputy Police Chief Prefect Matteo Piantedosi, representing Chief of Police, Director-General of Public Security Alessandro Pansa, ended on November 12, 2014. The meeting included an ordinary session and an ad hoc session with the participation of the ambassadors of the Political and Security Committee focused on operational cooperation between the European Union and the ICPO-Interpol.
On the sidelines, Deputy Police Chief held a hearing at the European Parliament before the LIBE Committee, during which he presented COSI's activities under the Italian Presidency.
The meetings achieved some important objectives of the Presidency programme. In particular, after a complex negotiation, the draft Conclusions on the renewed Internal Security Strategy were approved and will be submitted to the JHA Council on December 5, 2014.
The direct and concise document is a political input by the Council on the basis of which, in the spring of 2015, the Commission will issue a relevant Communication preparing the ground for a new Internal Security Strategy, after the one adopted by the Council in 2010. In this document, the 28 Member States agree to share objectives, priorities and methods to combat the serious criminal threats Europe will be confronted with in the coming years.
Special attention was paid to operational aspects. The Central Directorate for Anti-drug Services and the Maoc-N of Lisbon raised awareness among Member States about ratification of international instruments to combat drug trafficking, enabling inspection procedures and coercive measures on vessels, cargos and crews. The meeting also focused on radicalization of terrorism through a joint Italian-Austrian presentation, given by Italian Central Directorate for Prevention. This initiative was particularly appreciated both for the analysis of the problem and for the operational activities carried out by the two countries in the fight against the jihadist threat coming from the Western Balkans and, in particular, the phenomenon of foreign fighters.
Given the close links between internal and external security, the co-chairs of the COSI meeting - Prefect Piantedosi for the Italian EU Presidency and Ambassador Steven for the External Action Service of the European Union - proposed to give mandate to the support technical groups to explore any concrete operational forms of cooperation.
The goal is to attain a more effective participation of JHA representatives in the decision-making process for planning and identifying the resources to be allocated for civilian missions, which embody Eu external action and could represent a sort of "forward defense", especially in those areas which are the source of the major threats to European security.