26/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - In Warsaw on Tuesday 25 May, the Spanish interior minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba praised the efficiency of the European External Brooders Cooperation Agency, Frontex, which has just celebrated its first five years of existence. In a speech, the Spanish minister stressed Frontex's role in protecting the EU's external brooders, demonstrated by the slump in numbers of illegal immigrants arriving in Spain, which fell by 32% between 2006 and 2009. The numbers of illegal aliens arriving in the Canary Islands fell by 92%. A conference in Warsaw to mark the first European Border Guards Day was attended by EU Internal Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, and the managing director of Frontex, Ilkka Laitinen. For further information, see http: //http://www.ed4bg.eu/ (B.C./transl.fl)