17/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - Liaison officers to help Frontex. On 14 December, the European Parliament adopted, by 578 votes to 24, with 60 abstentions, but with some amendments, the report by Agustín Díaz de Mera García Consuegra on a proposal to amend a 2004 regulation to allow the Frontex agency to benefit from the expertise and experience of immigration liaison officers and vice versa. This change allow the expertise of the liaison officers and the Frontex agency to be put to mutual benefit; it will allow use to be made of the information obtained by the network of liaison officers and to share it through ICONet. Similarly, it will be possible to use the External Borders Fund to finance the creation of networks of liaison officers and facilitate their work. Finally, the change will expedite the system for the presentation of the half-yearly reports. (B.C./transl.rt)