The Minister of Justice and Public Order, Mr. Ionas Nicolaou, departs today, Thursday November 18, 2015, to Brussels, in order to participate in the deliberations of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the EU.
In the framework of the deliberations of the Council, which has an extraordinary meeting tomorrow due to the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, the Ministers are going to make a review of the implementation of all areas covered by the statement on counter-terrorism issued by the European Council, last February, and adopt the relevant measures outlined. Amongst these measures are the following areas of action: the finalization of the Passenger Name Record (PNR) the soonest possible, with the inclusion of internal (EU) flights and the usage of this data as a preventative measure against terrorist travels, the strengthening of controls of the EU external borders, through the usage of relevant databases at a European and at an international level, the strengthening of the cooperation with FRONTEX for a more effective surveillance of the sea borders, as well as the reinforcement of data exchange between the Law enforcement authorities and the European Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, in accordance with the launch of the European Counter Terrorist Centre of Europol, on January 1st, 2016.
Furthermore, the Ministers are going to elaborate on the control of the common deactivation of firearms, as well as on the issue of terrorist financing and the justice response to terrorism and violent extremism.
The Minister is going to return to Cyprus on Saturday, 21st November.