The visit begun with a meeting with Ministry of Interior and Administration high officials. During the meeting the guest was familiarised with measures undertaken by the Ministry in the area of, inter alia, institutional guidelines for combating terrorism in Poland.
The purpose of the visit is to get to know the situation as regards counter-terrorism actions in Poland, the role and tasks of institutions dealing with the issue, as well as the progress of works on development of the information exchange coordination system at the international level.
On 27 March 2008, a meeting was held of Mr Gilles de Kerchove with the Internal Security Agency high officials, during which the guest was introduced to the scope of tasks and actions undertaken by the Internal Security Agency for combating terrorism.
During his stay in Poland, Mr de Kerchove delivered, in the European College in Natolin, a lecture on combating terrorism. On 28 March, in the Ministry of Justice the guest from Belgium was welcomed by Marek Staszak – the National Public Prosecutor.
- Combating terrorism, even though Poland has not yet suffered from an attack, is of great importance for us. Hence, we are open for further cooperation with our European Union partners in this field – said, inter alia, the National Public Prosecutor – Marek Staszak.
Special investigative methods, information exchange, and work organisation within the frameworks of the European Commission - were the main issues covered during the discussions in the Ministry of Justice.
- The terrorist threat, which the European Community Member States constantly face, forces us to still work on implementing the European Union legislation, on access to information stored in databases, as well as – what is most important – on protection of the citizens – stated Mr de Kerchove, EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator.
EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator's Office (CTC - Counter-Terrorism Coordinator) was established in 2004 and it was placed within the frameworks of the EU Council Secretariat.
The Coordinator’s tasks cover strengthening and coordination of all the instruments for combating terrorism at the disposal of the EU, and monitoring of EU Counter-Terrorism Strategy implementation.
Since September 2007, the function of the coordinator has been performed by – Gilles de Kerchove, a lawyer, professor of law at the Catholic University of Louvain and of the Free University of Brussels, Lecturer at the National School for Public Administration (the École nationale d'administration - ENA) in Strasbourg, Director for Justice and Home Affairs at the EU Council Secretariat.
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