The enlargement of the European Union and the Kaliningrad Region

Doc. 9560

22 September 2002

The enlargement of the European Union and the Kaliningrad Region

Report

Political Affairs Committee

Rapporteur: Mrs Lara Margret Ragnarsdottir, Iceland, European Democratic Group

Summary :

From a political and legal point view, it would seem possible for the negotiations between the European Union, Lithuania, Poland and the Russian Federation to find a facilitated visa regime in accordance with the Schengen Agreement for road and rail transit from and to the Kaliningrad Region similar to the existing situation. The practical effect of such a visa regime also depends on the visa regime between the Russian Federation and Belarus, which does not require visas at present, since neither Lithuania nor Poland borders directly the Russian Federation other than the Kaliningrad Region.

Article 2, paragraph 1 of Protocol No. 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 12, paragraph 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights do not grant the right to freedom of movement across international borders or through the territory of other states. However, through the European Agreement on Regulations Governing the Movement of Persons between Member States of the Council of Europe, personal travel across international borders shall be facilitated.

Facilitated visa arrangements would not only be favourable to the residents of the Kaliningrad Region, it would also reinforce the process of greater international co-operation between the European Union, its Member States and the Russian Federation at bi-lateral level and in multi-lateral forums, and could serve as an example for other member states of the Council of Europe.

I. Daft recommendation

1. The Assembly refers to the statement of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of 21 June 2002 on the situation around the Kaliningrad Region in connection with the enlargement of the European Union.

2. The statutory aim of the Council of Europe is to achieve greater unity among its member states, which also requires fostering and facilitating contacts between all Europeans including through the travelling of persons across international borders in Europe. The Assembly recalls in this context the measures taken for a facilitated movement of persons under the European Agreement on Regulations Governing the Movement of Persons between Member States of the Council of Europe of 1957.

3. Article 2, paragraph 1 of Protocol No. 4 to the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees that “everyone lawfully within the territory of a state shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his or her residence.” The Assembly recalls that this Article does not grant the right to entry into or transit through other states.

4. The Assembly is conscious that border controls and visa requirements are a legitimate, but not exhaustive means of controlling the entry into and transit through states by persons across international borders.

5. The Assembly also recalls that the enjoyment of the right to leave any country including one’s own under Article 2, paragraph 2 of Protocol No. 4 to the European Convention on Human Rights requires the issuance of international travel documents to every person by their competent national authorities and the maintenance of sufficient and functioning border crossings.

6. The specific geographical situation of the Kaliningrad Region as an exclave Subject of the Federation under the Russian Constitution bordering solely the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and Poland, thus not being adjacent to other Russian territory, makes travel between the Kaliningrad Region and other territory of the Russian Federation only possible through the Baltic Sea, by air traffic, or across the international land borders and sovereign territories of Belarus and Lithuania, Belarus and Poland, or Latvia and Lithuania.

7. In view of this geographical situation, the Assembly notes with satisfaction the status of the Kaliningrad Region as a special economic zone under Russian law and hopes that this status be further implemented in order to facilitate the economic development of the Kaliningrad Region and compensate hereby for geographic disadvantages resulting from its territorial distance to the other parts of the Russian Federation.

8. The Assembly welcomes the greater freedom of movement of persons achieved under the Schengen Agreement elaborated within the framework of the European Union for a liberalisation of visa regimes among the signatory states of that Agreement. The accession of further states to the European Union and its bi-lateral agreements with candidate countries will gradually extend the application of the Schengen Agreement and may thus lead to a change in the currently existing visa regimes by those countries with their neighbouring states.

9. The Assembly is of the opinion that favourable travel regimes among member states of the Council of Europe should not be reversed through their accession to the Schengen Agreement.

10. Greater movement of persons across borders and favourable visa regimes should not, however, favour cross-border crime. Hence, the Assembly welcomes the intensified legal and technical co-operation between national law enforcement authorities against trafficking in human beings, organised crime, money laundering and other crimes committed across borders.

11. Therefore, the Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:

i. offer Council of Europe legal advice and expertise to member states with regard to their bi-lateral and multi-lateral visa regimes;

ii. monitor, and assist in, the implementation of the European Convention on Extradition, the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, and the Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime;

iii. instruct its relevant Steering Committees to analyse in how far the European Agreement on Regulations Governing the Movement of Persons between Member States of the Council of Europe should be amended by additional provisions on machine-readable standardisations of travel documents, the transcription between Cyrillic and Latin alphabets, mutual exchange of information between signatory parties related to public order and security, as well as the readmission of illegal migrants;

iv. invite all member states to sign and ratify the European Agreement on Regulations Governing the Movement of Persons between Member States of the Council of Europe;

v. invite Lithuania:

a. to analyse, in co-operation with the signatory states of the Schengen Agreement, the feasibility of establishing in the future a facilitated visa and travel regime for Russian citizens;

b. to grant, in the meantime, visa privileges to Russian citizens travelling to and from the Kaliningrad Region, for example in accordance with Article 5, paragraph 2, Article 11, paragraph 1, lit. b or Article 14 of the Schengen Agreement;

c. to establish an adequate number of border crossings at the international land border of the Kaliningrad Region, in particular with regard to small cross-border traffic including local trains and buses;

d. to sign and ratify a bi-lateral agreement with the Russian Federation on the readmission of illegal migrants;

e. to assist local and regional authorities in implementing the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities, in particular with regard to cross-border traffic and trade between Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Region;

vi. invite Poland:

a. to analyse, in co-operation with the signatory states of the Schengen Agreement, the feasibility of establishing in the future a facilitated visa regime for Russian citizens;

d. to sign and ratify a bi-lateral agreement with the Russian Federation on the readmission of illegal migrants;

f. to sign and ratify the European Convention on the International Validity of Criminal Judgments;

vii. invite the Russian Federation:

a. to establish reciprocal arrangements for Lithuanian and Polish citizens concerning the movement of persons and visas;

b. to ratify the bi-lateral border demarcation agreement with Lithuania of 1997;

c. to establish an adequate number of border crossings and modernise and equip the existing border crossings at the international land border of the Kaliningrad Region, in particular with regard to small cross-border traffic including local trains and buses;

d. to sign and ratify bi-lateral agreements with Lithuania and Poland on the readmission of illegal migrants;

e. to assist the authorities of the Kaliningrad Region in implementing the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities, in particular with regard to cross-border traffic and trade between the Kaliningrad Region, Lithuania and Poland;

f. to sign and ratify the European Convention on the International Validity of Criminal Judgments.

II. Explanatory Memorandum by the Rapporteur

Introduction:

1. At its meeting on 28 June 2002 (Reference No 2749), and following the current affairs debate on ensuring human rights in the Kaliningrad Region in the context of the European Union enlargement, the Bureau of the Assembly referred this subject to the Political Affairs Committee for report to be debated by the Assembly at the September Part-Session (23-27 September 2002) together with the report by the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development (Doc. 9524, 15 July 2002).

2. Having been appointed rapporteur on this subject by the Political Affairs Committee at its meeting on 9 September 2002, I undertook a visit to Vilnius, Kaliningrad, Warsaw and the European Commission in Brussels from 16 to 18 September 2002 (see programme attached as Appendix hereto).

3. The human rights situation in the Kaliningrad Region of the Russian Federation concerns in general the application of the European Convention on Human Rights and other human rights commitments in the Region. The specific focus of the current debate concerns in particular the introduction of new visa requirements by Poland and Lithuania for citizens of the Kaliningrad Region in the light of the planned accession of Poland and Lithuania to the European Union and the Schengen Agreement. Lithuania decided to require visas for Russian citizens as from 1 January 2003 (for residents of the Kaliningrad Region as from 1 July 2002) and Poland decided to do so as from 1 July 2003. Therefore, this question has become of immediate political importance.

4. The report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development of the Parliamentary Assembly on “ensuring a prosperous future for the Kaliningrad Region: the need for European solidarity” (Doc. 9524 of 15 July 2002) focuses on the economic situation of the Kaliningrad Region and the economic impact of an accession of Lithuania and Poland to the European Union including the issue of introducing a new visa regime.

5. The Kaliningrad Region has a territory of approximately 15,000 km² and a population of roughly one million. Formerly part of Germany, it became part of the USSR after the second World War, with the German population having left, died or been expelled. The Kaliningrad Region is an Oblast or Subject of the Federation under the Russian Constitution. The city of Kaliningrad is the capital of the Region and accounts for roughly 400,000 of the total population.

6. After the independence of Lithuania and Belarus from the USSR in 1990 and 1991, the Kaliningrad Region became an exclave from the other territory of the Russian Federation. Bordering the Baltic Sea, Kaliningrad can be reached from the other territory of the Russian Federation by air traffic, ship from St.Petersburg or car via Belarus and Lithuania, Belarus and Poland or Latvia and Lithuania. Those land and sea routes each roughly have a distance of more than 700 km.

Recent action by the Russian Federation:

7. The State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation issued a statement on the situation around the Kaliningrad Region in connection with the enlargement of the European Union on 21 June 2002, which refers to the constitutional right of Russian citizens to freedom of movement on the territory of the Russian Federation as well as to Protocol No. 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. The State Duma expressed its believe that “all plans to create visa, customs or any other artificial barriers for transit communications between the Kaliningrad Region and the rest of Russia can be viewed as neglect of the territorial sovereignty of the Russian Federation and violation by the EU of the commonly accepted norms and principles of international law”.

8. It furthermore refers to the former transit agreement of 1971 concerning road and rail transport between the Federal Republic of Germany and Western Berlin as a historic “precedent” and mentions current visa exemptions for citizens of non-Member States of the European Union. The statement concludes with the desire that the issuance of multiple-entry visas valid for the European Union under the Schengen Agreement be facilitated for the citizens of the Kaliningrad Region. In this respect, the members of the State Duma called on the national parliaments of the Member States of the European Union, the Parliament of Lithuania, the National Assembly of Poland and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

9. On 27 August 2002, the President of the Russian Federation proposed in parallel letters to the President of the European Commission and the heads of state and government of the European Union member states to work towards waiving visa requirements for Russian citizens in the future.

10. The Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the Kaliningrad Region, Mr Dimitry Rogozin, presented to the European Commission in September a draft memorandum of intentions between the European Union and the Russian Federation proposing the transit of Russian trains and buses through Lithuania without the possibility for passengers to leave those trains or buses.

Recent action by the European Union:

11. The Conclusions of the Spanish Presidency of the latest European Council (Seville, Spain, 21-22 June 2002) contain the invitation of the European Commission “to submit, in time for its Brussels meeting, an additional study on the possibilities for an effective and flexible solution to the question of the transit of persons and goods to and from the Kaliningrad Oblast, in compliance with the acquis and in agreement with the candidate countries concerned” (§ 55 of the Conclusions).

12. In response hereto, the European Commission released on 18 September 2002 a Communication setting out measures to ease transit between the Kaliningrad Region and the rest of Russia (COM (2002) 510 final).

13. The Conclusions of the Spanish Presidency furthermore refer to the need to develop a common European Union policy on asylum and take measures to combat illegal immigration, which include a “review, before the end of 2002, of the list of third countries whose nationals require visas or are exempt from that requirement”, as well as the “formal adoption, at the next Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting, of the Framework Decision on combating trafficking in human beings, the Framework decision on the strengthening of the penal framework to prevent the facilitation of unauthorised entry, transit and residence and the Directive defining the facilitation of irregular entry, transit and residence” (§ 30 of the Conclusions).

14. The European Council also pointed out that closer economic co-operation, trade expansion, development assistance and conflict prevention are all means of promoting economic prosperity in non-Member States of the European Union and thereby reducing the underlying causes of migration flows and illegal immigration (§ 33 of the Conclusions). It concluded by urging “that any future co-operation, association or equivalent agreement which the European Union or the European Community concludes with any country should include a clause on joint management of migration flows and on compulsory readmission in the event of illegal immigration” (ibid.).

15. The European Commission produced a Communication entitled “Towards integrated management of the external borders of the Member States of the European Union” and continues examining the advisability and feasibility of establishing a European Union border police force on the basis of the study carried out under the Italian Presidency (COM(2002)238 of 7 May 2002).

16. On 15 May 2002, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution on the EU-Russia summit of 28 May 2002. This Resolution briefly referred to the Kaliningrad issue and called on the Council of the European Union to seek with the Russian side a common and pragmatic understanding on all issues of common interest and involve Poland and Lithuania in the preparation of this topic.

17. Between Russia and the European Union, a High Level Group on the Common European Economic Space (CEES) has been established which produces progress reports, and a Partnership and Co-operation Agreement (PCA) has been signed which set up a dispute settlement mechanism through PCA conciliatory procedures.

18. The next Russia-EU summit is scheduled for 11 November 2002 in Copenhagen.

19. At present, visa regimes for the external borders of the European Union are established in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No. 539/2001 of 15 March 2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement (Official Journal of the European Communities, L 81, 21.03.2001). In Annex II to this Council Regulation, citizens of third states exempted from the visa requirements are listed. In the latter category, for instance, residents of the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao are included.

Analysis of the current situation:

20. Article 2, paragraph 1 of Protocol No. 4 to the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees the freedom of movement within the territory of the state, which a person is lawfully present in. This right does not grant freedom of movement across international borders or transit through other states’ territories. Therefore, visa requirements for Russian citizens entering the territories of Lithuania or Poland in order to travel to the Kaliningrad Region via international land borders do not concern the rights under Article 2, paragraph 1 of Protocol No. 4. The same applies to Article 12, paragraph 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights follows this approach, but does not constitute a legally directly binding text. The territorial sovereignty of the Russian Federation could not be affected by visa requirements following from the territorial sovereignty of Lithuania and Poland, and the Constitution of the Russian Federation could not grant the right to freedom of movement outside the territory of the Russian Federation.

21. Although the planned visa requirements do not constitute a restriction of human rights and thus do not impact the human rights situation in the Kaliningrad Region, their factual impact may be considerable. It may generally be regrettable from a political point of view, that visa requirements have been introduced by various states for Russian citizens after the dissolution of the USSR and will be introduced in the wake of the European Union’s enlargement.

22. After its secession from the USSR on 11 March 1990, Lithuania became an independent and sovereign state. Thereafter, bi-lateral agreements have been concluded between Lithuania and the Russian Federation regulating visa requirements. Currently, Russian citizens can transit by train Lithuania to and from the Kaliningrad Region with a valid Russian passport without visa. When travelling by car, Russian citizens need a passport with a visa and lorry drivers need a permit issued by the Lithuanian Ministry of Transport. Border controls have been established along the external borders of Lithuania.

23. Poland and the Russian Federation have established a bi-lateral visa regime dating back to an agreement between the People’s Republic of Poland and the USSR of 1979, which requires Russian citizens to hold an international travel document as well as either a visa, an invitation by a person or organisation in Poland, a travel voucher, or a specific admission stamp in the travel document for professional or medical entry. At that time, Poland and the USSR shared a common international land border, which is now the border to Belarus since its independence in 1991. Border controls exist for decades at the common border with the Kaliningrad Region, but the limited number of border crossings does not correspond to the actual demand.

24. The Russian Federation has not yet signed bi-lateral agreements on the readmission of illegal migrants. Such agreements would, however, reduce the likelihood of illegal migration. The latter is a serious problem for many states in Europe.

25. After the second World War, the USSR had considered parts of the Kaliningrad Region as a special military zone with the entrance and residence of persons restricted and a controlled re-settlement of the vacated area. Currently, such restrictions do not exist. However, strict border controls have been in place for years on the Russian as well as Lithuanian and Polish sides of the international land border of the Kaliningrad Region, which generally require a long waiting time. It is common at border crossings along the Kaliningrad Region that persons have to wait for several hours depending sometimes on arbitrary action by border guards.

26. Approximately 25% of the residents of the Kaliningrad Region have only been provided with travel documents by the Russian authorities. This may seriously limit the movement of Russian citizens and their right to leave their country under Article 2, paragraph 2 of Protocol No. 4 to the European Convention on Human Rights.

27. The costs of Lithuanian and Polish visas for Russian citizens are de facto lower than the costs of Russian visas for Lithuanian and Polish citizens due to processing fees added by Russian consular services. In accordance with the principle of reciprocity, such costs should be lowered. This is especially important when low-cost or free visas might be offered to Russian citizens in the future – a possibility the European Commission seems to consider at the moment.

28. Due to its geographical location as an exclave bordering the Baltic Sea, the Kaliningrad Region can be accessed directly from other parts of Russia only by airplane via international air routes or by ship through the Baltic Sea.

29. The former situation concerning road and rail transit between West Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany is not comparable to the situation of the Kaliningrad Region. With the exception of the blockade of West Berlin by the USSR from June 1948 to May 1949, West Berlin had been accessible by road and railway from western Germany. In 1971, when the mentioned transit agreement had been signed, the Four Allied Powers France, the United Kingdom, the USA and the USSR still had de jure the authority over Berlin as a whole including land and air traffic to and from Berlin. The United Nations had formally recognised the German Democratic Republic only through its accession as a Member State in 1973.

30. Also after the entry into force of this transit agreement, the German Democratic Republic maintained different border controls for citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany resident outside West Berlin and those resident in West Berlin. Although entry or transit visas had not been required for such transit, border controls had been very intense and travel documents had been stamped upon entry and exit with long waiting times. Persons in transit had also been required not to leave the train or, respectively, not to leave the most direct motorway, not to interrupt their transit, use only specific parking areas on the motorway and avoid any contacts with citizens of the German Democratic Republic. The Federal Republic of Germany had been paying large sums to the government of the German Democratic Republic for road maintenance of the motorways used for transit. For an individual entry into the German Democratic Republic, citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany had to apply for an entry visa, a presence visa and an exit visa and report to the local police station at the place of their destination. The former German-German border situation is thus neither comparable under international law to the international land borders of the Kaliningrad Region, nor does it seem politically desirable to set up again those procedures of the past.

31. The recently proposed right of passage of Russian trains and buses through the territory of Lithuania may pose questions with regard to the territorial sovereignty of Lithuania. In addition, the proposal to seal or lock those trains and buses does neither seem practicable nor desirable from a security and humanitarian point of view.

32. The Schengen Agreement of the European Union contains specific provisions, which allow for derogations under exceptional circumstances. Article 5, paragraph 2 allows a Contracting Party to derogate “on humanitarian grounds or in the national interest or because of international obligations” from the principle of refusing entry of aliens, who do not hold a visa and fulfil the other requirements of that Article. In such cases, permission to enter will be restricted to the territory of the Contracting Party concerned, which must inform the other Contracting Parties accordingly.

33. Chapter 3, Section 1 of the Schengen Agreement contains provisions on visas for short visits including transits. Article 11, paragraph 1, lit. b provides for “a transit visa allowing its holders to pass through the territories of the Contracting Parties once, twice or exceptionally several times en route to the territory of a Third State, provided that no transit shall last longer than five days.”

34. In case the Russian Federation issued specific travel documents to residents of the Kaliningrad Region, Article 14 of the Schengen Agreement could also be applicable, which allows for visas for short visits to be apposed to a travel document valid only for one Contracting Party, such visas being limited to the Contracting Party in question.

35. The issuance of national visas is a national decision. The admission of persons in accordance with the above exceptions under the Schengen Agreement should therefore not be considered as a ground per se for delaying full accession to the Schengen Agreement by Lithuania and Poland.

36. In order to facilitate personal travel between member states of the Council of Europe, the Committee of Ministers opened for signature the European Agreement on Regulations Governing the Movement of Persons between Member States of the Council of Europe (European Treaty Series No. 25) as well as the European Agreement on Travel by Young Persons on Collective Passports between the Member Countries of the Council of Europe (European Treaty Series No. 37). Both treaties could be used as an international legal framework for travel to and from the Kaliningrad Region.

37. In addition, the possible granting of visa privileges for transit to and from the Kaliningrad Region could go hand in hand with intensified legal co-operation between the European Union, Lithuania, Poland and the Russian Federation in the joint fight against illegal trafficking, illegal immigration and other criminal activities across borders. The report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development mentions that “the most frequent criminal activities are trafficking in human beings, illicit trading in drugs and stolen vehicles, and illegal migration” (§ 17 of the report). It furthermore states that a significant proportion of the Region’s population is involved in some kind of “informal” economic activity, which in total is estimated to account for over half of the Region’s gross domestic product (GDP). It seems thus indispensable that the Russian law enforcement authorities take adequate measures to reduce illegal cross-border activities, which would otherwise be strongly facilitated by visa privileges. The meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union with the Russian Ministers responsible for justice and home affairs on 25 April 2002, which focused on the European Union’s Action Plan on the fight against organised crime, could be welcomed in this respect.

38. The wider geographical area could also benefit from increased economic and administrative contacts as well as joint efforts towards more transfrontier co-operation under the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities (European Treaty Series No. 106). Lithuania, Poland and the Russian Federation have signed and ratified the Convention. In this respect, greater support for the “Euroregion” between Lithuania, Poland and the Russian Federation on the common borders of the Kaliningrad Region could increase regional trade, industry, tourism and environmental projects, for example.

Conclusions:

39. From a political and legal point view, it would thus seem possible for the negotiations between the European Union, Lithuania, Poland and the Russian Federation to find a facilitated visa regime in accordance with the Schengen Agreement for road and rail transit from and to the Kaliningrad Region similar to the existing situation. The practical effect of such a visa regime also depends on the visa regime between the Russian Federation and Belarus, which does not require visas at present, since neither Lithuania nor Poland borders directly the Russian Federation other than the Kaliningrad Region.

40. Article 2, paragraph 1 of Protocol No. 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 12, paragraph 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights do not grant the right to freedom of movement across international borders or through the territory of other states. However, through the European Agreement on Regulations Governing the Movement of Persons between Member States of the Council of Europe, personal travel across international borders shall be facilitated.

41. Facilitated visa arrangements would not only be favourable to the residents of the Kaliningrad Region, it would also reinforce the process of greater international co-operation between the European Union, its Member States and the Russian Federation at bi-lateral level and in multi-lateral forums, and could serve as an example for other member states of the Council of Europe.

APPENDIX

Visit by the Rapporteur of the Political Affairs Committee,

Mrs Lara Margret Ragnarsdottir,

to Vilnius, Kaliningrad, Warsaw and the European Commission in Brussels

from 16 to 18 September 2002

Programme

Monday, 16 September 2002

Arrival in Vilnius by plane

17h00 Meeting with the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr Evaldas Ignatavicius, and senior representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Border Guard Service of Lithuania.

19h00 Meeting with the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lithuanian Parliament, Mr Gediminas Kirkilas, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Forum between the Lithuanian Parliament and the Duma of the Kaliningrad Region, Mr Alvydas Medalinskas, the Rapporteur of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Mrs Sigita Burbiene, and the Chairman of the Lithuanian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, Mr Jonas Cekuolis.

Tuesday, 17 September 2002

Departure to Kaliningrad by car

11h00 Meeting with the Vice-Governor of the Kaliningrad Region, Mr Vladimir V. Pirogov, the Chairman of the Kaliningrad Regional Duma, Mr Vladimir A. Nikitin, the Ombudsman of the Kaliningrad Region, Mrs Irina Vershinina, and the Deputy Head of the International Affairs Department of the Administration of the Kaliningrad Region, Mr Pavel Mamontov.

Departure to Warsaw by plane

16h30 Meeting with the Vice-Minister for Internal Affairs, Mr Zenon Kosiniak-Kamysz, the Commander of the National Border Guards and senior representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and senior representatives of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance of Poland.

21h00 Meeting with the Chairman of the Polish delegation to the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Mr Tadeusz Iwinski, Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, and the Counsellor to the Prime Minister, Mr Piotr T. Ciecwierz.

Wednesday, 18 September 2002

Departure to Brussels by plane

11h00 Meeting at the European Commission with Mr Eero Vuohula, Adviser at the DG External Relations, Mr David Tirr, Deputy Head of Unit at the DG External Relations, Mr Sven-Olov Carlsson, member of the Poland Team at DG Enlargement, and Mrs Laura Yli-Vakkuri, detached national expert at DG Justice and Home Affairs.

Reporting committee : Political Affairs Committee

Reference to committee Bureau’s decision of 28 June 2002, Reference No. 2764 of 3 September 2002.

Draft recommendation unanimously adopted by the committee on 22 September 2002

Members of the committee : Jakic (Chairman), Feric-Vac (Vice-Chairperson), Spindelegger (Vice-Chairman), Aguiar, Aliyev (alternate: Seyidov), Andican, Atkinson, Azzolini, Bakoyianni, Behrendt (alternate: Lörcher), Berceanu, Bergqvist, Bianco (alternate: Danieli), Björck, Blaauw, Blankenborg, Bühler, Cekuolis, Clerfayt, Daly, Dreyfus-Schmidt, Durrieu, Eörsi, Frey, Glesener, Gligoroski, Gönül, Gross, Henry, Hornhues, Hovhannisyan, Hrebenciuc, Iwinski (alternate: Jaskiernia), Judd, Karpov, Kautto, Klich, Koçi, Kostenko, Lloyd, Loutfi, Margelov, Martinez-Casan, Medeiros Ferreira, Mignon, Mutman, Naudi Mora, Neguta, Nemeth (alternate: Tabajdi), Oliynyk, Paegle, Pangalos, Pourgourides, Prentice (alternate: Tomlinson), Prisacaru, de Puig, Ragnarsdottir, Ranieri (alternate: de Zulueta), Rogozin, Schloten, Severinsen, Timmermans, Toshev, Turjacanin (alternate: Tokic), Vakilov, Vella, Volpinari, Voog, Weiss, Wielowieyski, Wohlwend, Wurm, Yarygina (alternate: Popov), Zacchera, Ziuganov (alternate: Slutsky), Zhvania,

N.B. The names of those members present at the meeting are printed in italics

Secretaries of the committee : Mr Perin, Mr Chevtchenko, Mr Dossow , Ms Entzminger, Ms Alléon