| 15 July 2009 On Monday, July 6, 2009, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Administration and Interior, took place the official meeting of the vice-prime-minister Dan Nica, minister of administration and interior, and his counterpart from the Slovak Republic Robert Kalinak. Considering that this was their first official meeting after Romania took over the Salzburg Forum Presidency on the 1st of July 2009, and the fact that the mandate will be handed over to Slovakia next year, the today discussions focused on identifying the best ways of bilateral co-operation. To this end, the leadership of the Ministry of Administration and Interior started taking the necessary steps for the accreditation of an internal affairs attaché with both Hungary and the Slovak Republic. There was also addressed the issue of Romania’s joining the Schengen area during this meeting, and the vice-prime-minister Dan Nica presented the external border security system, including the Integrated System of Observation, Surveillance and Control of the Black Sea Traffic (SCOMAR). Speaking of the activities meant to lead to Romania’s accession to the Schengen area in 2011, minister Dan Nica stated that from his point of view “Schengen does not mean free travelling for everybody, but only for those who travel legally”. The Slovak official expressed his availability to support Romania in the evaluation visits of the European experts in this area, underlining that a common past of the two states (as former totalitarian states) has to mean a common future within the Schengen territory. At the same time, the ministry of administration and interior appreciated the objectivity of the Slovak experts manifested during the three evaluation visits of this year (on police co-operation, personal data protection and visas). Vice-prime-minister Dan Nica, Minister of administration and interior, also presented Romania’s initiative to accomplish, over its Presidency of the Salzburg Forum, an Information Centre for the units countering organised crime to enhance co-operation in the area of cyber crimes. BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The Salzburg Forum was set up in July, 2001, when the home ministers of Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary met in Salzburg/Austria to discuss and agree some new opportunities of developing co-operation at a bi-lateral and regional level. Romania and Bulgaria joined the member states of the Forum in 2005.
As for the Presidency of this Forum, this is exerted in turn by each member state for a 6-month mandate, in alphabetical order. Currently, the Presidency is held by Romania and in the first semester of 2010 it will be taken over by Slovakia. In the first semester of 2009 the Forum Presidency was held by Poland.
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