Slovenian Minister of Justice Lovro Šturm will attend Justice, Freedom and Security Ministerial Meeting between Ukraine and the Troika of the European Union, which will start on 28 May 2008 in Kyiv with a working dinner and a discussion on strengthening the judiciary. The meeting will continue on 29 May with an official session and conclude with a press conference. Besides the president of the EU Council, the meeting will be attended by representatives of the Commission and of the incoming French Presidency.
Ministerial Meetings with Ukraine on Justice and Home Affairs are held once a year during the first semester and are dedicated to reviewing the implementation of the revised EU-Ukraine Action Plan on Justice and Home Affairs. Although to date, such meeting have normally been held in the margins of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels or Luxemburg, this year’s meeting has special significance as it will be held in Kyiv for the first time. At the last meeting in Luxemburg, which was held last June, the ministers agreed to strengthen cooperation between the EU and Ukraine in the field of Justice and Home Affairs.
Cooperation between the EU and Ukraine is based on the general Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Ukraine, which entered into force in 1998. In 2009, this agreement will be replaced by a new enhanced agreement, which the EU and Ukraine started discussing in April last year. Cooperation in the field of Justice and Home Affairs is based on two action plans. The first action plan, which was adopted in 2001, laid down the basis for cooperation in this field by envisaging various activities in the field of border management, visa policy, migration and asylum policy, fight against organised crime and terrorism, as well as in the field of strengthening the judiciary, rule of law and good governance. A new action plan was adopted in 2005 and revised last year.
The meeting will focus on the implementation of the EU-Ukraine agreements on visa facilitation and readmission, negotiations on the EU-Ukraine new enhanced agreement in the field of Justice and Home Affairs, migration and asylum, border cooperation, fight against corruption, fight against organised crime and terrorism, including money laundering, trafficking in human beings and drugs, cooperation with Europol and Eurojust, as well as on other topics of common interest, such as the fight against racism and xenophobia.
