Brussels, 12/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - A meeting of experts on the fight against terrorism from the countries in the Euro-Mediterranean area was held this week (10 November) in Brussels as part of the Barcelona process. The meeting took place under the aegis of the group of senior civil servants for political and security issues. According to official sources, there were exchanges of opinion on recent events in this field, and the European Commission presented its work on the police component of the MEDA-funded Euro-Mediterranean Regional Programme on Good Governance and the Rule of Law. It considers that the focus on this programme represents "a breakthrough in Euro-Mediterranean cooperation on justice and good governance".
The programme should lead, according to the Commission, to the creation of a specific network covering the Euromed zone. With 2 million euros of financing, the "Good governance-Rule of law" regional programme aims to facilitate Euro-Mediterranean police cooperation through training and exchange of information and good practices vis-à-vis five major problems: terrorism, organised crime, human trafficking, the drugs trade and financial crime. Fifteen training seminars will be dedicated to these five themes. Three seminars have already taken place on terrorism, two in France and one in Morocco. Further meetings of experts are planned for December in Morocco and February in Cairo. The senior civil servants also turned their attention to possible cooperation in the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The EU informed its Mediterranean partners of the latest developments and opportunities for third countries to join in the ESDP. The senior civil servants agreed to develop the network of points of contact for the ESDP. Finally, a seminar on crisis management was announced, to take place next year in Athens. In the same context, police and customs officers involved in the fight against illegal activities using information technology had an extensive exchange of experiences and opinions at the first Euro-Mediterranean training seminar on cyber-crime, held in Wyboston in the UK from 1 to 5 November.