site.btaBulgarian Interior Minister Radev Chairs EU Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels

Brussels, March 9 (BTA correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - Bulgarian Interior Minister Valentin Radev chaired a meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels on Thursday.

"We considered the readiness to implement the Passenger Name Record (PNR) Directive and were unanimous that this is an invaluable instrument in the fight against terrorism and organized crime," Radev told a news conference after the meeting. He added that the EU interior ministers discussed the interoperability of European information systems.

"Member States have ten weeks to set in place their PNR systems," EU Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told the same news conference.

The Council also exchanged views on security and counter-terrorism cooperation with the Western Balkans. "We discussed the areas in which cooperation can and must be strengthened: violent extremism, radicalization, arms trafficking, combating organized crime and border control," Radev explained.

He noted that the EU interior ministers are unanimous on relying on industry as their ally in the battle against online terrorist content. Radev added that migration policies were also on the agenda.

Avramopoulos said that migration flows to the EU have shrank by 30 per cent since the start of the crisis. The EU is launching experimental data exchange between military and civilian security services, he announced.