The parliamentary EU affairs committee on Wednesday backed the government efforts for Slovenia to host the seat of the EU border management agency. The committee also backed the government standpoints to be represented by the interior and justice ministers at the informal meeting of justice and home affairs ministers in Luxembourg this week.
Also competing for the seat of the European Agency for the Management of Operational Co-operation at the External Borders are Hungary, Poland, Estonia and Malta. In line with the EU plans, an agreement on the agency's headquartes should have been reached by the end of last year.
The agency should start operating in May. It will coordinate border control, provide technical assistance and assistance in the training of border police, conduct risk analyses and cooperate with third countries.
Anton Kokalj, the chair of the parliamentary committee, said the MPs firmly supported the government's efforts to win the seat of the agency.
Slovenia has the longest EU border considering the size of its population and it borders the biggest political hotspot. MPs are also convinced that Slovenia has the biggest advantage in terms of knowhow, information infrastructure and logistics.
Also on the agenda was the government position on EU's financial arrangements between 2007 and 2013 and the costs of the protection of the external EU border. The committee backed the efforts that the protection of the EU border should be defined as a common EU project that would be funded by the EU budget.
The committee backed the government positions that will be represented by Interior Minister Dragutin Mate and Justice Minister Lovro Sturm at the informal meeting of justice and home affairs ministers in Luxembourg between 27 and 29 January.
The Luxembourg meeting will discuss the action plan for implementing "the Hague Programme", which foresees greater cooperation between competent ministries and justice bodies against organised crime and terrorism.
Kokalj said it was particularly important for Slovenia for the responsibilities related to asylum, migration and borders to be justly distributed among all member states.
The committee also gave a go-ahead to the government position on a common asylum policy. The MPs stressed that the immigration policy should be discussed together with the EU development policy. This means that the focus should be on eradicating poverty in transitional countries and the countries that are the origin of immigrants.
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