Presidents of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the EU, Lovro Sturm and Dragutin Mate discussed fight against drugs and organised crime, and cooperation in border control as they took part in a two-day EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council meeting in St. Petersburg.
Mate said on Friday that fight against drugs topped Thursday's working dinner. The EU and Russia expressed their concern over the growing production of opium in Afghanistan and the presidency called upon the international community to help in implementing a national Afghan drug control strategy.
According to Mate, the sides agreed that cross-border cooperation in fight against drugs needed to be bolstered. They also agreed to exchange information regarding the cocaine route from South America to Europe and Russia and to start a dialogue on stepping up the detection and prosecution of drugs in the Black Sea region.
Today the meeting focused on visa talks between the bloc and Russia. Mate said that certain progress had been made in the implementation of visa facilitation and readmission agreements between the EU and Russia.
The participants called for shortening of visa waiting lines. According to Mate, the goal of the dialogue is a visa-free system, which however is still far away.
The EU and Russia also discussed the strengthening of cooperation between the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders (FRONTEX) and the Russian Federal Border Guard Service.
The presidency supports strong cross-border cooperation which it believes of key importance in fight against all forms of crime. It also supports possible agreements on local border traffic.
Also on the agenda of the meeting was cooperation between Russia the European Police College (CEPOL) and the progress in cooperation between Europol and Russia, especially in fight against counterfeiting of money and trafficking in drug precursors.
Justice Minister Sturm meanwhile discussed fight against cybercrime, cooperation in civil and criminal law and cooperation between Russia and Eurojust.
The sides called for more cooperation in fight against cybercrime, especially in detecting of sites that relate to sexual abuse of children and use of the internet for terrorist purposes.
The EU highlighted the importance of the European Convention on Cybercrime and welcomed the fact that Russia was getting better in basic standards and instruments in fight against such crime, Sturm said.
The sides furthermore expressed their satisfaction with the progress of consultations regarding a potential agreement in civil law. The EU and Russia are also striving for boosting cooperation in family law.
In the field of criminal law, both sides are involved in updating the Council of Europe's European Convention on Extradition of 1957. They also agreed that Eurojust will organise a seminar where experts can exchange experience and views on issues concerning international legal assistance.
The EU was also represented by the European Commission's vice-president, Jacques Barrot, and representatives of the next EU presiding country France, while Russia was represented by president's assistant Viktor Ivanov, Internal Affairs Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and Justice Minister Vladimir Ustinov.
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