Croatia's ministers of interior, justice attend USA-EU meeting ahead of Croatia's EU presidency

The ministers of the interior and justice of the United States and the European Union met in Washington on Wednesday, where Croatian ministers Davor Bozinovic and Drazen Bosnjakovic presented their country's programmes in the areas of internal affairs and justice for the period of Croatia's presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2020.

"Croatia has been recognised as an efficient member of the EU as well as one of the countries that puts a lot of emphasis on its relations with the USA," Minister Bozinovic said after the meeting, confident that during Croatia's EU presidency cooperation with the USA would result in more concrete agreements.

Bozinovic: USA, EU closest natural allies

Bozinovic went on to say that transatlantic ties were much stronger than they seemed, notably in the field of internal affairs and justice, where, he said, the USA and the EU, were the closest and natural allies.

Minister Bosnjakovic said that the Washington meeting focused on global topics, notably the fight against organised crime, terrorism and people smuggling.

He said that such offences were characterised by a large amount of electronic evidence and that ways should be found to obtain that evidence, expressing hope that during the current government's term further progress would be made in that regard.

Asked about a reported cooling of relations between the USA and the EU, Bosnjakovic said that cooperation was at a high level. "It should be so because all the issues we are discussing are in the interest of both the EU and the USA."

Apart from Croatia as the future EU chair, the EU was represented at the Washington meeting also by Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders and Finland's Justice Minister Anna-Maja Henriksson and Minister of the Interior Ilkka Sami, while the US side was represented by Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf.

The ministerial meeting, focusing on transatlantic cooperation and on dealing with common security threats, is held twice a year and the next meeting will be held in Dubrovnik in 2020.

Strong commitment to promotion of transatlantic partnership

The US officials said after the meeting that the USA and the EU had confirmed their strong commitment to promoting the transatlantic partnership and continuing dialogue on justice and internal affairs.

The fight against terrorism remains the main joint priority, with emphasis on the exchange of information collected as evidence in criminal proceedings. The meeting underlined the importance of using that information to improve border security, notably in the context of the return of foreign terrorist fighters.

The ministers also discussed cooperation in preventing hybrid threats, including chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats as well as cyber security challenges and security challenges related to the use of the 5G technology.

The USA and the EU reaffirmed the importance of promoting judicial cooperation in cyber space, notably regarding cross-border access to electronic evidence.

Bozinovic meets with Wolf

Before the ministerial meeting, Bozinovic held a separate meeting with Secretary of Homeland Security Wolf, at which they discussed what had been achieved since Bozinovic's last visit to Washington less than two years ago.

"We expressed satisfaction with the level of cooperation and concrete contributions of both sides in strengthening the cooperation between the Ministry of the Interior and agencies such as the FBI and the DEA, said Bozinovic.

"We particularly underlined the importance of big international operations that we jointly coordinated such as Nana, Nexus and Familia, where the efficiency of the Croatian police force as well as of our cooperation was demonstrated. Meanwhile Croatia has joined the programme for the registration of passengers in air traffic and we have established a direct link with the centre for terrorism. Those are all activities that make Croatia one of the more important US partners in that area," said Bozinovic.

Text: Hina

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