Video: https://youtu.be/qS5hR4Cwh14
First of all, I would like to thank the Dutch presidency and especially Ard van der Steur and Ronald Plasterk for the work done so far in the area of Home affairs.
Under challenging and critical circumstances, many achievements were delivered on security.
The agreement on PNR Directive, the work done on improving our information management, the agreement in Council on the counter-terrorism Directive and today's agreement on firearms.
All based on Commission initiatives And in all of these initiatives, the priority has been the fight against terrorism.
Today's good news is the Council's common approach on the firearms directive.
This issue has been a priority ever since the Paris attacks in January 2015.
We want to tighten our rules and leave as little as space as possible for exceptions that criminals can exploit.
As we await the European Parliament's opinion on this, I hope that we can reach a final and solid agreement on this directive in the coming months.
Today we also advanced our work on information sharing, building on the ideas the Commission presented back in April.
Information sharing is our most effective weapon against the threat of terrorism. And we have to get better at using it.
Fragmentation in how we share our information is a source of weakness and vulnerability.
And the vulnerability of one Member State is the vulnerability of the entire Union.
This will remain a clear priority in the near future.
The Expert Group we announced will meet for the first time in a few days, to start developing a new approach based on interoperability and interconnectivity, while of course fully respecting EU fundamental rights.
Finally, I want to highlight that Europol has become an important player in supporting Member States in their fight against terrorism.
The results achieved on the ground together with the French and Belgian authorities clearly show this progress.
It is now time, to make sure that Europol can do even more in supporting all Member States in their operational actions against terror.
More exchange of information and strategic intelligence is needed.
We will continue to work in order to make Europol and its Counter-Terrorism Centre stronger and more effective, as announced in our Security Union Communication.
There is still a lot of work ahead of us.
I count on the support and cooperation of the Member States for this important work.
Especially of our Slovak friends who will take over the Presidency from the Netherlands in a few weeks.
Looking back at the past 6 months of the Dutch Presidency, and even simply at today's meeting, I see how we have made good progress.
Everyone is fully aware of the momentum that we have to grasp.
After all, this is about the security of our citizens.