On 26 January, Igors Rajevs, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, participated in the informal meeting of the ministers of justice and internal affairs of the European Union (EU) in Stockholm.
During the meeting, most of the attention was devoted to the issues of the external dimension of EU migration policy, especially highlighting the need to ensure quick and effective return of illegal migrants. Regardless of the current achievements in the field of return, it has been concluded that the EU has not succeeded in the field of return, the personal indicators are low and the main reason for these low indicators is the lack of interest of third countries to readmit their nationals.
Taking into account the above-mentioned, it is clear that improving cooperation with third countries in order to promote the fastest and most efficient return of citizens of the respective countries who do not have a legal basis to stay in the EU, is a key cornerstone in solving these problems.
Latvia provided its support during the meeting for the use of all tools available at the disposal of the EU and for further improvement of the current cooperation format, including developing effective, targeted and individually adapted cooperation with third countries in order to improve the effectiveness of return measures as much as possible. That would, inter alia, also contribute to preventing and combating the flow of illegal migration to the EU in general.
In addition to the above-mentioned, it should be noted that a discussion was held during the meeting on what measures should be implemented at the EU level in order to promote the ability of Member States' law enforcement agencies to combat the ever-increasing organized crime in the Internet environment as best as possible and effectively, when criminals are abusing the opportunities provided by digital technology and services.
From the point of view of Latvia, the greatest challenges for the investigation of criminal offenses in the Internet environment are caused by the limited possibilities of law enforcement authorities to retrieve electronic evidence, as well as to decipher electronic data that could contain electronic evidence, therefore these are issues that should be worked on more and more intensively in the future and a single EU solution should be sought to prevent existing shortcomings.
Prepared by:
Ministry of the Interior
Communication Department