Minister of Home Affairs and Spanish Minister of Interior analyse Spanish Presidency priorities

The Portuguese Minister of Home Affairs José Luís Carneiro, and the Spanish Minister of Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, met in Lisbon to analyse the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union’s priorities in the second half of this year.

The guidelines which José Luís Carneiro indicated are fully in line with the Portuguese Government’s policy priorities, entail:

- Crime prevention and fighting (particular serious and organised crime), including drugs trafficking and narcotraffic networks from Latin America, which are a threat to the State and citizens’ security

- Preventing and fighting cybercrime, radicalisation, terrorist recruitment and acts, online sexual exploitation, focusing especially on minors. 

In this field, the importance of the Exchange of information and law enforcement cooperation was stressed, following the priority given in the last Portuguese Presidency to cooperation between the EU and MENA countries (in line with the conference hosted in Lisbon in February).

In the field of crime and terrorism prevention and fighting, José Luís Carneiro shared the explosive tracking system implemented in Portugal, as it can be an advantage for the entire Union’s security 

- EU border management and control, preventing external threats and ensuring strict cooperation between the competent authorities

- Strengthening the European Civil Protection Mechanism by boosting the available resources, anticipating the response to disasters and pre-positioning human and material resources, based on a principle of true European solidarity.

Please note that the European Commission, due to the articulated requests by the Portuguese and Spanish Ministers of Home Affairs, assured an increase in the resources available for summer this year and both countries hope to benefit from this.

In terms of civil protection, the political and operational commitment was boosted to continue providing mutual assistance, namely aerial means

- Preparing the World Youth Days to be held in Lisbon from 1 to 6 August, for which 1.5 million people are expected to come to Portugal. Both Ministers assessed the measures to adopt in border controls – air, sea, and land.

These measures will be approved by the Government based on the technical proposals to be issued by the Secretary-General of the Internal Security System. The need for these to be enforced in strict cooperation and collaboration with the Spanish authorities was agreed with the Spanish Minister.