The European Commission has announced this Wednesday that the European Union will intensify police, judicial, and border control cooperation with the southern Mediterranean states in order to tackle organized crime and illicit trafficking via land, maritime, and air routes. This reinforcement will be carried out through closer coordination between security forces, customs authorities, and border surveillance services on both shores.
The announcement was made by the European commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Suica, at the first meeting of senior officials on Internal Security between the EU and its partners in the southern Mediterranean, where she unveiled two new regional security initiatives integrated in the Pact for the Mediterranean.
The first proposal, called 'MED-OP', will focus on deepening judicial and police cooperation among the countries involved to strengthen prevention, preparedness, and response to organized crime networks, as well as enhancing the capabilities of security forces, judicial systems, and border control authorities.
This action also includes an increase in collaboration between the agencies responsible for disaster and emergency management, with the aim of improving coordination and the intervention capacity of the authorities on both sides of the Mediterranean in the face of shared risks.
The second initiative, called 'Fronteras Seguras', aims to strengthen the fight against illicit trafficking across air, maritime, and land borders, through greater coordination between customs services, coast guards, border surveillance devices, and other police bodies with competencies in this area.
According to the European Commission, both programs will also help address "cyber and hybrid threats", as well as the "challenges" linked to migration, in a scenario of increasingly complex cross-border risks.
A plan with 30 actions in the Mediterranean
These announcements come after the presentation, this Tuesday, of an update to the Action Plan of the Pact for the Mediterranean by the European Commission and the European External Action Service (SEAE), which includes nine new initiatives and raises the total number of planned measures to 30 to intensify cooperation between the EU and the countries on the southern shore.
Among the main developments, the cross-Mediterranean cooperation initiative in renewable energies and clean technologies (T-MED) stands out. Its investment platform aims to mobilize 25,000 million euros for renewable energy projects, electrical infrastructure, and clean technologies, combining European resources with instruments intended to attract private capital.
In the educational field, the creation of a Mediterranean University and innovation and research centers is being promoted; a new Mediterranean Center for Scientific Diplomacy will be added to them to encourage collaboration between researchers and universities across the entire region.
The plan also includes a cooperation program to support the countries of the southern Mediterranean in the fight against wildfires, through a center based in Cyprus, together with new measures aimed at strengthening the protection of vulnerable migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees along migration routes.