Cosi-Cats meeting report
An informal meeting of the Committee on Internal Security (COSI) and Article 36 Committee (CATS) was held yesterday at the Italian National Police Academy in Rome.
It was scheduled under the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and was the first joint meeting of the two Committees.
The working sessions were chaired by Matteo Piantedosi, Deputy Chief of Police in charge of Police Forces Coordination and Planning, who presided over the COSI session, and Vincenzo Delicato, Acting Director of the International Relations Service, who coordinated the CATS session. The Italian delegation led by Annapaola Porzio, Director of the Police Forces Coordination and Planning Office, was composed of law enforcement experts, including officers of the central directions of the Department of Public Security. Delegates from EU member states, representatives of the General Secretariat of the Council, the European Commission and the European Agencies concerned were also attending.
The delegations had arrived in Rome the day before and were received at the Police Academy, where the Police Chief - Director General of Public Security Alessandro Pansa gave a short welcome speech outlining the priorities of the national programme. He mentioned the migration phenomenon, the issue of terrorism and the so-called "foreign fighters", the need to create an Internet secure space by tackling cybercrime in all its forms. He also talked about the development of the negotiations on the new Europol regulations, and the Italian proposal for a European action aimed at preventing and combating the infiltration of organized crime in the legal economy.
In a constructive and open discussion during the working session of July 22, the delegates expressed a broad consensus on the proposals submitted by the Italian Presidency for further developing the area of freedom, security and justice, identifying new challenges in the field of internal security.
Deputy Police Chief Matteo Piantedosi opened the meeting with a presentation on "The future role of COSI", highlighting the Italian Presidency's objective to ensure a more operational approach to COSI. The session continued with a fruitful discussion on the Presidency's proposals, aimed at summarizing the expectations of the Member countries, to be submitted to the European Commission as Conclusions on the renewal of the Internal Security Strategy for 2015-2020, following the strategic guidelines laid down by the European Council on June 26 and 27.
In the afternoon Mr Vincenzo Delicato illustrated the Italian proposals on the fight against infiltrations of organized crime into the legal economy, especially as regards public tenders.
There was consensus on strengthening prevention activities and the debate highlighted the added value, in terms of security, of a European action as proposed by the Italian Presidency. These topics will be further discussed during the next meetings of CATS and other technical groups.