20/12/2024 10:01
Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos presided Thursday over a ministerial meeting on the progress made so far in the process of the accession of the Republic of Cyprus to the Schengen area.
The meeting was attended by Ministers of the Interior, of Justice, of Transport and Deputy Ministers of Immigration, Social Welfare and Tourism.
According to a press release by the Foreign Ministry, the purpose of the meeting was to present the state of affairs and assess the progress made so far in the process of the accession of the Republic of Cyprus to the Schengen area.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs presented the current state of affairs regarding the progress of the implementation of the recommendations of the European Commission. In this context, he informed that in his congratulatory letter to the new Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration of the European Union, Magnus Brunner, he pointed out the importance that the Republic of Cyprus attaches to achieving the goal of accession to the Schengen area, as well as its absolute dedication to fulfilling all the conditions that ensure that Cyprus can adequately control the southeastern borders of the European Union.
He also announced the establishment of an ad hoc Schengen Task Force at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aiming at better coordination between the co-responsible Ministries and Services.
During the meeting, the six evaluation areas (personal data protection, police cooperation, external borders, returns, visas and the Schengen Information System on the basis of the action plans) were examined and the most important challenges that should be addressed immediately were highlighted.
It was agreed that the goal is that Cyprus achieves to have technical readiness and therefore, progress should be accelerated on all issues. To achieve this goal, a roadmap for addressing outstanding issues was agreed, as well as a monitoring mechanism.
As for the immediate next steps, it was decided that all Ministries and Deputy Ministries should intensify efforts to implement outstanding issues within the coming weeks, and a new meeting to assess progress will be held around the end of February, the announcement concludes.