Oct
19
4th Meeting of the Committee of Ministers
The fourth meeting of the Committee of Ministers, organised under the auspices of the Macedonian Chairmanship-in-Office and co-organised by PCC SEE Secretariat, was held on 19 October 2010 in Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia. The meeting was convened on the margins of the 10th Regional Ministerial Conference on Illegal Migration, Organised Crime, Corruption and Terrorism. In attendance were Ministers responsible for home affairs and authorised representatives from the Contracting Parties as well as representatives from Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland, EUROPOL, CEPOL, DCAF and SECI Center.
The outcomes of the meeting, chaired by the Macedonian Minister of Interior, Ms. Gordana Jankuloska, and co-chaired by the Head of PCC SEE Secretariat, Mr. Anton Travner, are as follows:
The Committee of Ministers highly valued the Roadmap for the implementation of PCC SEE as an important and useful strategic document and agreed on the content of the Roadmap, however, some of the Contracting Parties expressed that the proposed period 2011-2015 might be too ambitious for certain activities foreseen in the document. Therefore the Expert Working Group and PCC SEE Secretariat were authorised to harmonise the dynamics of implementing PCC SEE and redefine the Roadmap accordingly.
The Committee of Ministers endorsed the report by the Expert Working Group and welcomed the decision of the Expert Working Group to establish a Thematic Working Group on Exchange of Information regarding Forged and Fake documents within PCC SEE, as well as welcomed the report by PCC SEE Secretariat and endorsed the Work Programme for PCC SEE Secretariat for 2011.
The importance of data protection was reiterated and the Committee of Ministers urged all Contracting Parties to speed up the process of mutual evaluations in accordance with the Rules of Procedure in the area of Data Protection (CoM 03/09).
The Committee of Ministers welcomed the intention of Austria and Slovenia to join PCC SEE as well as the measures undertaken in this respect.
The priorities of the upcoming Moldovan Chairmanship of the Convention during the first half of 2011 were presented and the Committee of Ministers assessed the proposals as useful and consistent.