Law enforcement in Europe

It's "very hard" for the Romanian MPs to explain to their electors why they cannot move freely in the Schengen area, although the technical criteria have already been met, but this "sorrow" didn't trigger any populist movements in our country, Senate President Calin Popescu-Tariceanu said in the opening of the Interparliamentary Conference on the Future of the European Union.

Hungarian authorities detained a Syrian man on Friday accused of taking part in beheadings in Syria as a member of Islamic State, Budapest prosecutors and the European judicial co-operation agency Eurojust said.

The Standing Committee on Operational Cooperation on Internal Security (COSI) and the Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum (SCIFA) carried out several informal meetings on Wednesday and Thursday in Bucharest, in view of discussing the specific and unitary ways aimed at the citizens's safety in the European Union space.

The government approved additional spending on the budget of the Ministry of Interior amounting to BGN 3 000 000, the government's press service announced.

The amount is for the financing of projects related to the implementation of urgent measures for 2019 for the accession of the Republic of Bulgaria to the Schengen area.

French President Emmanuel Macron has outlined his vision for Europe's future, urging reform of its passport-free Schengen area and setting up a new agency to protect against fake news, reported rte.ie

Deputy Oana Florea, the head of the delegation of the Romanian Parliament to the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group (JPSG) on Europol, said on Monday that Romania is well regarded at Europol, having the second-largest number of employees, specializing mainly in IT and data analysis. Romania is well-regarded at Europol. We are on the second position by the number of employees.

A delegation of the National Assembly, headed by the Chairman of the Committee on Internal Security and Public Order, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, will participate in the Fourth Meeting of Europol's Joint Parliamentary Control Group, to be held in Bucharest on February 25, 2019.

The meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group (JPSG) on Europol is to take place on 24 and 25 February in Bucharest, in the context of the parliamentary dimension of the Romanian presidency of the European Union's Council.

EU ambassadors on Wednesday agreed on a European Council's negotiating position on a regulation on the European Border and Coast Guard; on the basis of this mandate, the Romanian presidency of the Council will start negotiations with the European Parliament, Romania's Interior Ministry (MAI) reports in a press statement.

AGERPRES special correspondent Daniel Florea reports: Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Wednesday reiterated that Romania had met ever since 2011 the technical criteria for joining Schengen and underscored it was high time for the political decision to be one bringing Romania to the free movement space.