COUNCIL OF
THE EUROPEAN UNION

Brussels, 29 October 2009

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JAIEX
RELEX
ASIM
CATS
JUSTCIV
USA
NOTE
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Presidency
Delegations
EU-US Statement on "Enhancing transatlantic cooperation in the area of Justice,
Freedom and Security", adopted in Washington D.C. on 28 October 2009

The European Union (EU) and the United States of America (U.S.) share common values of
democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. We recognize that
transnational crime and terrorism pose a threat to these shared values. We thus seek to deepen
transatlantic cooperation in the pursuit of greater justice, freedom and security.

This statement is adopted at a time when the EU is setting out new ambitions for its policy for the
area of Justice, Freedom and Security with the adoption of a new multiannual policy programme by
the end of 2009, the Stockholm Programme. This process will lead to an update of EU policies,
many of which have a transatlant ic dimension. The U.S. has reaffirmed a foreign policy based upon
its values and ideals, while also protecting the American people and building new justice and home
affairs programs and partnerships in furtherance of this policy. We would like to take this
opportunity to renew our partnership for the next five years.

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We welcome this opportunity to reflect upon our progress over the past years. The EU and the U.S.
have benefitted from a long-standing, productive partnership in the areas of justice, freedom and
security. Our progress is reflected in our agreements on extradition and mutual legal assistance,
information on flight passengers, customs cooperation, collaboration in tracking terrorist financing
and EU assistance in facilitating the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. We also
recall our close operational partnership leading to international agreements and working
arrangements between the U.S. and Europol, Eurojust and Frontex, respectively, and the posting of
liaison officers at each other's diplomatic representations and at Europol and Eurojust. We take
note that transatlantic cooperation between the U.S. and EU and EU’s Member States takes place in
many ways, formal and informal, and on a daily basis, including through ongoing operational
cooperation.

Our partnership will benefit our people and address our common challenges of maintaining security
and individual rights while facilitating travel, business, and communication. We face common
threats from those who seek to commit acts of terrorism and transnational crime. Our partnership
must be balanced, agile, creative and forward-thinking.

In the spirit of mutual respect and partnership, we commit to enhancing our policy and operational
cooperation to meet common challenges with due regard to reciprocity. To this end we will further
enhance the exchange of information on policy and operational initiatives, share experiences and
best practices, reinforce cross-border law enforcement and judicial cooperation, and organise, when
relevant, joint training and expert meetings. Whenever appropriate, we will foster cooperation with
the private sector.

We will seek early consultations when new policy developments may affect the other partner. We
highlight our common commitment to work together in international fora towards full
implementation of multilateral obligations and work cooperatively where issues of common interest
arise. We will endeavour to enhance transatlantic dialogue with and between our legislative bodies
and support the expansion of their discussions on justice and home affairs issues in the context of
the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue, among others.

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Scientific and technological cooperation is indispensable to enhance the security of our societies.
We will therefore further deepen our cooperation in the area of civil security research, in particular
via our newly extended and amended Agreement for Scientific and Technological Cooperation.

Together we will translate these commitments into concrete actions illustrating the value of our
partnership to the American and European people.

Facilitating mobility in a secure environment

We are committed to the facilitation of legitimate travel and trade in a secure environment
which is essential for maintaining close ties between the citizens and businesses of the United States
and the European Union. We have cooperated to enhance travel document security and to establish
biometric passports as the international standard. We recall our agreement on airline passenger data
to enhance air travel security including our commitment to undertake joint reviews of the agreement
in order to assure the effective operation and privacy and personal data protection of our respective
systems for collecting and analyzing such data. We remain committed to addressing the challenge
of terrorist and criminal mobility while providing a welcoming travel experience for legitimate
travellers while safeguarding their personal data, including through registered traveller systems.

We acknowledge the social and economic benefits to EU and U.S. citizens from visa-free travel in
a secure environment between our two continents. We will work together to complete visa-free
travel between the US and the EU as soon as possible and increase securit y for travellers.

We will develop our working relationship on mobility and security matters, including border,
readmission and travel document security policies. We look forward to close cooperation and the
exchange of best practices, as we develop and implement technical border entry and exit systems.
We will work closely to implement the Working Arrangement between the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security and Frontex.

We intend to improve our common understanding of the global phenomena of migration and
refugee issues and look for joint responses in areas where we are both affected. To this end we
commit to expand our dialogue.

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Strengthening law enforcement

We re-affirm our commitment to protect our people from the common threats of serious
transnational crime. We seek to expand and intensify our cooperation notably in the areas of:
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trafficking in human beings
smuggling of migrants
sexual exploitation of children, including depictions of such abuse of children on the Internet
drug trafficking
trafficking of other illicit goods
financial crime
cyber crime
corruption
tracing and confiscating the proceeds and instrumentalities of criminal activity

We recognize that the fight against terrorism requires coherent and coordinated action. We recall
our joint statement on the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and to future more
expansive counter-terrorism cooperation. The prevention of violent radicalisation and recruitment is
critical to enhancing citizens' safety from the threat of terrorism. The misuse of the Internet for
disseminating violent and radicalizing messages is a worrisome phenomenon that we need to
consider within the context of legal restraints and operational needs.

We support compliance with international standards to combat the financing of terrorism, including
the Special Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force. We recall our continuing
dialogue and practitioners' workshops on terrorist financing and reducing the vulnerability of nonprofit organisations for financial crimes. We recognize that terrorist sanctions in support of the
United Nations Security Council designations have greatest effect when implemented
internationally and will continue our efforts to strengthen legal protection of individuals in listing
and delisting procedures. We will also continue to cooperate in tracking the misuse of the financial
system for terrorist purposes.

We will continue to conduct seminars and workshops on the threats posed by the malicious use of
explosives and chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear materials and will continue to
encourage the ongoing beneficial relationships that these seminars and workshops foster.

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We recall our close law enforcement cooperation, including coordinated operations, joint training,
cooperation among our law enforcement training institutions, cooperation on threat analyses,
identification of best practices and research. We commit to strengthen and deepen cooperation
between the United States, Europol and Eurojust. Annual crime specific meetings between relevant
U.S. prosecutors and law enforcement officers and representatives of Eurojust and Europol will
serve to increase the effectiveness of our cooperation. We will look for ways to take the profit out
of crime through freezing and confiscating ill- gotten assets and instrumentalities of crime.

Strengthening judicial cooperation

We have worked to improve judicial cooperation to help detect, investigate and prosecute
transnational criminals and terrorists. We look forward to the entry into force in early 2010 of the
EU-U.S. agreements on extradition and mutual legal assistance and the conforming bilateral
instruments. These agreements will provide for new tools for cooperation between U.S. police
authorities and prosecutors and the EU Member States and Eurojust, such as the setting up of joint
investigation teams (JITs), using video tele-conferencing technology to take testimony and
providing prompt response to requests on suspects’ banking and other financial services records
Together with the updated extradition and mutual legal assistance agreements between the U.S. and
individual EU Member States, these agreements will facilitate and expedite assistance. An EU-U.S.
working group will promote implementation of the agreements, and seminars are planned to help
practitioners employ the agreements to their fullest and monitor implementation.

We note the benefits of enhancing our dialogue on judicial cooperation in civil law matters. We will
deepen our policy exchange between relevant experts on civil law matters and share information on
new legislation and initiatives.

Safeguarding human rights and fundamental freedoms, including civil liberties

The fight against transnational crime and terrorism often requires the sharing of personal data for
law enforcement and public security purposes, which compels us to protect the human rights,
fundamental freedoms and civil liberties in all fields of transatlantic cooperation.

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We recognise the critical importance of providing a high level of effective protection of personal
data. Our common values and attention in this area are borne out by our history of effective
cooperation with scrupulous attention to protecting personally identifiable information.
Furthermore, we strive to increase confidence in our respective legal frameworks.

We acknowledge the completion of the High Level Contact Group’s more than two years of work to
foster mutual understanding and identify a core set of common principles that unite our approaches
to protecting personal data while processing and exchanging information for law enforcement
purposes. We have important commonalities and a deeply rooted commitment to the protection of
personal data and privacy albeit there are differences in our approaches. The negotiation of a
binding international EU-U.S. agreement should serve as a solid basis for our law enforcement
authorities for even further enhanced cooperation, while ensuring the availability of full protection
for our citizens.

We share the conviction that the EU-U.S. cooperation to increase public security in general needs to
be linked to increased joint efforts to strengthen freedom and justice in the transatlantic space.

Fostering preparedness and resilience

Given the damage to our critical infrastructure that would result in the event of a man- made
attack or natural disaster, and the consequent impacts on public health and safety, and economic and
national security, we commit to enhance our capabilities, e.g., to identify fundamental
interdependencies, assess risks and protect critical infrastructure, key resources and vital supply
chains. We will undertake efforts that foster resilience to prevent the disruption of critical
infrastructure functions thereby ensuring that our people and economies recover as quickly as
possible.

Recent cyber attacks are a reminder of the urgent need for action. We are resolved to prevent
attacks against our information systems and develop means to swiftly respond to threats of an
increasingly global nature. We will work cooperatively to recover from major critical information
and communication system failures.

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Working together internationally

We are inspired by the principles of liberty, democracy and justice and are committed to working
together internationally to foster these principles around the world. We have achieved a great
deal in our cooperation on the ground in third countries and international fora such as the United
Nations.

Cooperation between liaison officers and delegations has proved to be fruitful, e.g., in the Western
Balkans, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In order to help us ensure that our actions are complementary
and also to increase the impact of our work with third countries, we will engage in close
consultation and coordinate technical assistance. We will continue donor and operational
cooperation, particularly in Latin America and West Africa, to help tackle drug trafficking and other
challenges.

We will build upon our strong partnership and work together to strengthen global and regional
institutions, to ensure they play a vital role. Also, we will continue to cooperate in promoting and
implementing key international instruments, in particular the UN Convention on Transnational
Organised Crime and its supplementing Protocols, and the UN Convention against Corruption. We
will work closely together to build a strong review mechanism that will allow for effective
monitoring of the implementation of the Convention against Corruption. We will also promote the
accession to and effective implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime.
We fully support the ratification and implementation of the UN conventions and protocols against
terrorism.

Recalling the general principles of good cooperation, we undertake to make our dialogue as
effective as possible. We seek to foster in-depth discussion and frank exchange, meeting as often as
necessary, and promptly following up after meetings. To this end, we will examine and adapt the
structure and format of our dialogue to include intensified consultations and regular joint meetings
at Ministerial and senior officials' levels and more operational contact and exchanges at the expert
level, using videoconferencing whenever suitable.

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This statement pays tribute to our past accomplishments and points the way for further
strengthening transatlantic cooperation in the areas of freedom, security and justice. We strive to
make our people secure against the challenges of transnational crime and terrorism while
safeguarding freedom and justice, building on a foundation of shared values, ideals and objectives.
Finding practical solutions will guide our action as we continue to make our partnership more
operational in maintaining security, facilitating legitimate movement, and protecting human rights
and fundamental freedoms.

____________________

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EN