Brussels, 08/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - In Luxemburg on 2 June, EU Home Affairs Ministers decided to create a network of specialised offices which will exchange strategic information allowing police authorities more easily to trace criminal assets abroad. The text will probably be adopted formally over the next few weeks. Ministers also followed up the policy agreement of the end of April on the increase in the price of visas from 35 to 60 euro in the Schengen area from 1st January 2007 (see EUROPE 9181). European counter-terrorism coordinator Gijs de Vries presented his six-monthly report on the implementation of the counter-terrorism strategy and the action plan: he questioned the effectiveness of the framework decisions and conventions, with the EU taking too long to agree on the wording of texts which were often less ambitious than the originals and were transposed only years later. He also presented the media communication strategy drawn up as part of the action plan to tackle radicalisation and recruitment (a glossary of politically correct language for referring to terrorists who claim to act in the name of Islam: see EUROPE 9176). On the future of Europol, the Council stressed the urgency of finalising ratifications of the three protocols amending the Convention, which gave rise to Europol, before 31 December. Work must also be started on trying to replace the Europol Convention with a Council decision before 1st January 2008. In December, the Finnish Presidency will produce an evaluation report on progress on these issues. Finally, the Council adopted the conclusions presented by Michel Barnier on the EU responses to crises: the idea is to pool Member States' resources in the event of a pandemic or terrorist attack.