Brussels, 07/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Union and the US government announced on Monday that a “contact group” would be created to improve cooperation on criminal justice matters with a view to combating terrorism. Franco Frattini, Security Commissioner, said in Washington that the decision has been taken to create a high level contact group, not for administrative tasks but in order to look at how “our common values, our common principles, can be translated into common proposals”. He said a positive spirit of cooperation was needed rather than focusing on what divides the two sides. The result of a German initiative, the contact group, he said, would aim to set up common principles aimed at data protection without, however, dealing with the transfer of air passenger data (EUROPE 9282), as this last task will be the responsibility of expert groups by the end of the year, European sources point out. The US Secretary of State for Justice, Alberto Gonzales, believes the creation of the contact group will allow cooperation between prosecutors in the United States and prosecutors and magistrates in the EU Member States, and that this will increase their capacity to combat international crime. During the meeting, the cooperation agreement recently concluded between the United States and Eurojust was also signed (EUROPE 9297). Mr Frattini again called on Americans to make “visible and tangible progress” on visa reciprocity, a problem that has been the bane of the European Commission for several months now (EUROPE 9279). The Commissioner also urged for the creation of a “permanent transatlantic forum” on cooperation between the public and private sectors in the security field. Mr Frattini did not wish to speak on the CIA detention programmes in Europe, preferring to wait for the publication in 2007 of the final report from the European Parliament's temporary committee. (bc)