On Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 June, the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union hosted the EU-US Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting in Warsaw, which was attended by Pamela Bondi, Attorney General, and Rob Law, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, according to a press release.
The EU was represented by the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Magnus Brunner, and the Commissioner for Justice, Michael McGrath, as well as the Polish Minister of the Interior and Administration, Tomasz Siemoniak, and the Polish Minister of Justice, Adam Bodnar.
The meeting, which did not receive any public coverage, “provided the opportunity to reaffirm the value of sustained EU-U.S. cooperation in addressing shared challenges”.
The two sides discussed “areas of common interests and priorities, such as fighting transnational organised crime and drug trafficking, counterterrorism, illegal migration, and cyber-related criminal activity”.
There was talk of stepping up the fight against cocaine and synthetic drug trafficking. On terrorism, “the excellent ongoing operational cooperation between Europol and U.S. competent authorities” was highlighted.
The two sides also “reiterated their commitment to transatlantic visa free travel for all citizens of the European Union and the United States”, although the United States still requires visas for Romanian, Cypriot and Bulgarian citizens, with the Trump administration having suspended a recent decision in favour of Romanian citizens taken under Joe Biden’s administration.
The EU and the United States will meet again in Washington in the second half of the year. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)