site.btaEU Scrutiny Group on Europol to Meet in Sofia Next Year to Discuss Western Balkans and Counterterrorism

Brussels, October 10 (BTA) - The newly founded EU Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on Europol (JPSG) will hold its next meeting in Sofia on March 18-19, 2018, Bulgaria's National Assembly Internal Security Committee Chair Tsvetan Tsvetanov said in Brussels on Tuesday, as quoted by his GERB party.

Tsvetanov attended the JPSG founding meeting which was held in the Belgian capital between Monday and Tuesday.

He proposed that the agenda of the upcoming Sofia meeting include the Western Balkans and the security situation in the region.

The EU Treaty allows the European Parliament, together with the national parliaments of the member states, to control Europol. Due to disagreements, the JPSG founding meeting failed to adopt procedural rules for the group, leaving the job to be done by the Sofia meeting.

While in Brussels, Tsvetanov talked with Claude Moraes, who chairs the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. He told Moraes that it is important for the JPSG meeting in Sofia to discuss the Western Balkans, the fight against terrorism and the efforts to protect the security of the EU's external border. Tsvetanov proposed that representatives of the national parliaments of the Western Balkans and Turkey be invited to the event as observers.

There is an idea for the Sofia meeting to also discuss ways to suppress cybercrime and to be attended by European Commissioners Mariya Gabriel (Digital Economy and Society) and Julian King (Security Union), GERB said.

Tsvetanov also met with Manfred Weber, who heads the European People's Party group in the European Parliament. The two looked at Bulgaria's progress towards Eurozone and Schengen membership. Weber praised the work of the Bulgarian MEPs from GERB.

On Monday, Tsvetanov met with Europol Executive Director Rob Wainwright to discuss the Draft Europol Programming Document 2018-2020, which sets as an objective the cooperation with third countries for optimisation of the partner network. Wainwright said, as quoted by GERB's press release, that another objective is to strengthen Europol's role as a preferred platform for law enforcement cooperation against security threats to the EU.

Tsvetanov told the Europol Executive Director that the Western
Balkans will be among the key priorities of the Bulgarian
Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2018. Wainwright assured him that this region will continue to be of
particular importance to Europol.