Brussels, 31/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - In Varese, Italy, on Saturday, the home affairs ministers of the G6 group of countries (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom) pledged to strengthen cooperation in the fight against illegal immigration, terrorism and organised crime. European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and US Attorney General Eric Holder also attended the informal meeting. Following the meeting, Italian Home Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni said that he personally would present to the European authorities, and in particular to the EU Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg this week, the proposals that came out of the meeting for a “concrete” and “combative” European security system. On Friday, the first day of the two-day meeting in Varese, it was decided that Europe as a whole should establish bilateral agreements with African countries to contain the departure of illegal immigrants from their countries of origin and centralise procedures for granting the right of asylum, border patrols and the return of illegal immigrants. French Immigration Minister Eric Besson suggested to his European and US counterparts that a Euro-American “anti-illegal immigration network taskforce” be set up. This taskforce would be responsible for determining geographical areas for priority action, sharing the intelligence received by the various police forces and drafting a joint technical and operational cooperation programme with the main countries of origin and transit. An initial working meeting on this idea will be held in Paris sometime in July. Saturday, the second day of discussions, focused on combating organised crime and on the measures needed to break down organised crime financing and money-laundering networks. The countries taking part decided that the Spanish Presidency and the European Commission should coordinate a meeting of technical experts on money laundering in Brussels, which will be the continuation of an earlier conference held in February in Alicante. (B.C./transl.rt)