Brussels, 23/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Committee of Senior Officials responsible for monitoring the Barcelona Process met on 18 October in view of the informal Euro-Mediterranean ministerial session, in Brussels on 5 and 6 November. The meeting, which as usual was preceded, the previous day, by a meeting especially devoted to the political and security dialogue, simply led to a discussion, the effects of a difficult economic situation (Afghanistan, and especially the Middle East) coming on top of specific deadlocks, like that on the draft common Charter on Peace and Security. In the economic chapter, the senior officials raised the fallout of the meetings of experts engaged in the framework of the Macroeconomic Dialogue, to move further towards discussions on the subject of growth and employment, and raise particular issues, like taxation. In the third chapter ("human" matters: social, cultural, justice and "home" affairs - term the partners dispute, seeing in it a restriction to the "police" aspects), they dealt with the co-operation programme relating to justice and home affairs, for which a special meeting is being envisaged for 30 October in Brussels.
On 22 October, an ad hoc group on immigration (coming from the Committee of Senior Officials, like the one that has been convened twice on terrorism) examined the migratory phenomenon from the political point of view. The meeting was to enable the European Commission to explain its proposals on the establishment of a common EU policy in this field, and the experts to discuss improvements to information and statistical exchanges, so as to deepen the dialogue on problems linked to migratory flows and the movement of persons.