The Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontier and Asylum of the Council of the EU to hold a session in Vilnius

The Informal Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontier and Asylum of the Council of the EU (SCIFA) meeting will be held in Vilnius on July 9-10. The aim of this meeting - to discuss some of the strategic EU migration and border protection issues before the upcoming Informal Meeting of Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs in Vilnius on July 18-19.

The Committee has on its agenda the following discussion items: the 4th Annual Commission Report on Immigration and Asylum, the provisions of the EU Action Plan on Migratory Pressures, related with cooperation with third countries of origin and transit on migration management, the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of research, studies, pupil exchange, remunerated and unremunerated training, voluntary service and au pairing and other related issues.

Experts from the 28 EU Member States as well as Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein are invited to meet in Vilnius. The respective representatives of the European Commission, the EU Member States' external borders agency, the European Asylum Support Office, the General Secretariat of the Council and the Legal Service of the EU Council are also invited.

The meeting of Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontier and Asylum of the Council of the EU will be organized by the Ministry of Interior, and it will be chaired by the Deputy Director of International Cooperation Department Kestutis Bucinskas.

Informal Committee meetings are traditionally held every six month in a country presiding of the EU Council.