APPENDIX 3: CONCLUSIONS OF THE MEETING
OF G6 MINISTERS AT STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, 25-26 OCTOBER 2006
The interior ministers of France, Germany, Italy,
Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom met in Stratford-upon-Avon,
United Kingdom, on 25 and 26 October 2006 to agree action
on matters of mutual interest in the areas of migration, terrorism
and organised crime.
This informal "G6" grouping met again to
continue to share ideas and identify concrete actions to be taken
forward by them to improve the safety of their citizens. The G6
is not an EU body but in addition to improving practical cooperation
among its members it can also provide a useful impetus and forum
for piloting ideas in the wider area of freedom, security and
justice.[22]
Ministers welcomed the good progress made since their
last meeting on 22-23 March in Heiligendamm, Germany and
endorsed in particular:
- Work on developing a joint strategy
to improve re-admissions, including pooling information, in particular
influencing third countries to issue travel documents promptly;
- Ongoing work to exchange views on integration
contracts or measures with immigrants and exchange of information
on dialogue with Muslim communities, including around language
training and providing social and cultural knowledge of the affiliating
societies for recent immigrants;
- Plans to deepen co-operation on tackling the
trafficking of human beings, which will be developed at operational
level after the meeting in Stratford;
- Progress on improving operational cooperation
and dialogue with African Countries, including plans to pool information
on a central data base;
- Efforts to improve cooperation regarding monitoring
and analysing the use of the internet by terrorist organisations,
including a successful conference in Berlin in September;
- Continued exchange of information on terrorist
suspects between the G6;
- The ongoing development of joint support teams
in case of serious terrorist attack;
- A model to improve the cooperation between liaison
officers in the Western Balkans, to be further developed after
Stratford.
To develop some of these work streams further and
in the face of new challenges Ministers discussed ways to improve
cooperation in the areas of counter-terrorism, integration, organised
crime and migration control.
1 Fighting terrorism
Ministers agreed that terrorism needs an individual
and collective response as nations. It continues to pose a very
significant and developing threat to the citizens of all countries.
We share a common duty to tackle terrorism and unequivocally condemn
those who are involved in terrorism. There can be no excuse or
justification for terrorist murder.
Ministers therefore agreed to take the following
specific actions to combat the threat:
- Work to pre-empt the next terrorist
attacks by agreeing action to identify developing threats and
recommending appropriate responses;
- Improving cooperation in monitoring and analysing
internet use by terrorist organisations, including by supporting
Germany's project "check the web", in order to make
the internet a more hostile operating environment for terrorists;
- Share ongoing research into explosives, in particular
on liquid explosives and giving support for more EU funding;
- Support work on traceability of explosives and
an early warning system on diverted explosives;
- Encourage the EU to maintain the high level of
protective security at European airports, to enhance research
for new technical screening devices and to argue for these standards
to be adopted globally.
Ministers noted the importance of addressing the
needs of victims of terrorism and agreed to share experience on
how best to support them.
They also agreed to continue the programme of mutual
information visits to national counter-terrorism centres following
the success of the first such visit to Germany in October 2006.
2 Promoting integration
While recognising the different situations prevailing
in each of their countries Ministers underlined their commitment
to providing the necessary conditions for the successful integration
of all communities in their societies. Recent events in G6 countries
have demonstrated the need to challenge and undermine misleading
and extremist ideas and ideals, in particular by developing in
the context of engagement between civilisations, cultures and
religions, a constructive dialogue of values with Muslim communities
to dispel any notion that the fight against terrorism is a conflict
with Islam.
Following the intensive exchange of information about
integration programmes agreed at Heiligendamm Ministers agreed
to:[23]
- Hold a conference to provide a
forum to encourage dialogue and debate between public service
agencies and Muslim Communities;
- Conduct regular exchanges of information between
Member States on programmes for engagement with Muslim communities;
- Take appropriate measures, such as road shows
and media campaigns in European cities to encourage Muslim youth
support for democratic values and to propagate effective arguments
against extremist justification for terrorism. These measures
will target young audiences, including by testimonials of "secular
Muslim" role models, to demonstrate possibilities for Muslim
youth to succeed in modern European societies;
- Support the continued implementation of the EU's
strategy on radicalisation and recruitment.
3 Fighting organised crime
Ministers stressed that combating organised crime
remains a high priority. The smuggling of people, drugs, arms
and other illicit goods by organised groups poses a significant
threat and contributes to crime both inside the EU and within
countries along trafficking routes. Ministers agreed that to prevent
and reduce the harm caused by such activity there are real benefits
in tackling organised crime outside the borders of the EU, including
by further improving operational co-operation between liaison
officers and by strengthening local law enforcement.
Ministers agreed to take the following action:
- Establish a joint operation to
tackle the trafficking of human beings, beginning with an expert
seminar in November in Poland;
- Develop and embed a model of co-operation between
liaison officers in the Western Balkans, with G6 leads for each
country in the region, to pool resources and share intelligence;
- Undertake joint operations to tackle drugs trafficking
off the West coast of Africa, in addition to existing projects
relating to North Africa, using where appropriate the Maritime
Analysis and Operations Centre (Narcotics);
- Produce an action plan to address organised crime
in eastern and south eastern Europe, including Russian organised
crime, to complement existing EU work in this area.
Ministers underlined the need for effective EU level
structures to underpin the efforts of Member States in combating
organised crime. In particular they reaffirmed their commitment
to the rapid conclusion of negotiations on the second generation
Schengen Information System and the Visa Information System. They
noted the considerable achievements of institutions such as Europol
and Eurojust and underlined their support for both. But they also
noted the need to continue to reform Europol to improve its capacity
to deliver quality analysis of the organised crime threat and
stressed the importance of better co-ordination between EU law
enforcement bodies, including Frontex, in particular to address
cross cutting issues such as illegal immigration.
Ministers also noted that Missing Trader Intra-Community
(MTIC) VAT fraud costs Member States millions in lost revenue
and helps to finance organised crime. They therefore agreed to
find ways to improve practical co-operation with each other and
with Finance colleagues to develop a law enforcement response
to this issue.
4 Immigration
Ministers, recalling the principle of European solidarity
in the common management of external borders, underlined their
commitment to controlling migration and tackling illegal immigration,
particularly at the external maritime and land borders of the
EU, and called on Frontex to be given the necessary support to
co-ordinate meaningful EU level action in this area. They agreed
that the EU Global Approach to Migration should continue to form
the basis of our international strategy and stressed the need
to engage with third counties to build their capacity to manage
migration and to foster dialogue. To this end they underlined
the need to build on the outcomes of the Rabat conference and
the importance of the forthcoming ministerial EU-Africa conference
on co-development in Libya, which will support the development
of a coherent and balanced response to the challenges of managing
migration flows between the two continents in a spirit of co-operation
and shared responsibility.
Ministers highlighted the need to do more to tackle
clandestine, illegal routes used by irregular migrants from Africa
to the EU and the routes used by those travelling into the EU
from beyond its eastern land borders. Ministers agreed the following
specific actions to respond to the challenge of illegal immigration:
- Setting up a joint analysis unit
to disrupt the activities of illegal immigration networks and
people smugglers on routes from Africa (East, North and sub-Saharan)
by systematically sharing intelligence on seaborne activity between
Libya and EU counties;
- A proposal for a working group at Europol to
collect and analyse all information concerning criminal networks
linked to illegal immigration and trafficking in human beings
from West and North Africa and European Neighbourhood Partnership
countries with the purpose of dismantling these organised criminal
groups;
- Leading EU efforts to broker regional agreements
with third countries in Africa to tackle illegal immigration by
sea;
- Providing the European Commission with expert
support to achieve targeted and effective readmission agreements
with third countries;
- Working with other EU members states on a GDISC
(General Directors of Immigration Services) capacity building
programme for the Ukraine to effectively respond to irregular
transit migration.
Ministers underlined the importance of exploiting
new technology to strengthen border surveillance and controls,
including through the exchange of passenger information. They
also welcomed the general framework set out in the Franco-German
paper for closer co-operation in the immigration and asylum fields
and agreed to explore them further with a view to a common approach
from the G6 to the December JHA and European Councils.
5 International Policing
Ministers agreed on the importance of concerted EU
action to build up effective policing infrastructures in third
countries particular in post-conflict situations. They agreed
to consider ways to build on the existing EU action in this field,
through better co-ordination and enhancement of the response.
It was agreed that the incoming Italian Presidency would take
this forward at the next G6 meeting.
22 [Footnote to the original which does not appear
in the version on the Home Office website] Other EU Member States
and the European Commission are fully informed about G6 discussions.
If they result in EU level proposals these are negotiated by all
Member States in the usual way. Back
23
Up to this point Section 2 of the Conclusions, including the heading
'2. Promoting Integration', does not appear in the version on
the Home Office website: see paragraph 8 of the report. What follows
of Section 2 therefore appears to be part of Section 1, and in
that context is incomprehensible. Back
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