Fernando Grande-Marlaska is committed to 'maintaining and improving' police cooperation with Georgia in the fight against crime

The Minister for Home Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and his Georgian counterpart, Vakhtang Gomelauri

The Minister for Home Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, met this Friday with his Georgian counterpart, Vakhtang Gomelauri, in a meeting in which he highlighted the mutual efforts made in recent months "to maintain and even improve the excellent level of bilateral collaboration in all areas affecting security in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of our societies".

In addition to reviewing the situation of police cooperation between Spain and Georgia, Grande-Marlaska and Gomelauri signed the agreement by which both countries recognise and accept the exchange of driving licences of nationals of each country residing in the other, approved by the Council of Ministers on 26 March.

Recognition shall be automatic for all driving licences, except for holders applying for an exchange to drive lorries and buses, who must pass a driving test on roads open to general traffic. "The signing of this agreement will be a particularly important step forwards in our cooperation and will facilitate the daily lives of many Georgian citizens living in Spain and of Spaniards in Georgia," said the Spanish minister.

The working meeting, held at the Ministry of Home Affairs, was also attended, on behalf of the Spanish department, by the Undersecretary, Susana Crisóstomo, the Director General of Traffic, Pere Navarro, and the Director General of International Relations and Foreigners, Elena Garzón.

Minister Gomelauri was accompanied by the Director of International Cooperation, Sophio Imerlishvili, and other officials from his department and the Georgian Embassy in Madrid.

At the beginning of the meeting, Grande-Marlaska reiterated "Spain's firm commitment to strengthening relations with Georgia in the fight against any type of crime," and expressed his confidence in the forthcoming signing of an international agreement on the prevention and fight against serious criminal phenomena with the General Directorate of the Police, similar to that signed in 2020 with the General Directorate of the Guardia Civil, "which will contribute to strengthening ties between the Spanish and Georgian police forces," he added.

In this regard, the Spanish Minister for Home Affairs recalled some particularly major police operations carried out in the last six months of 2023, such as those known as Feira or Kanyut, in which Spanish regional police and police from other countries such as the United States also participated, which led to the dismantling of high-impact criminal networks in Spain and Georgia, "which is why we can congratulate ourselves and encourage us to persevere along these lines."

The war in Ukraine and Europe's internal security

During the meeting, the two ministers discussed the situation created by the war in Ukraine, in particular its consequences for European internal security, threatened by a potential spread of arms trafficking from the conflict zones to neighbouring countries.

In this regard, Grande-Marlaska explained that Spain leads the European Union's European Multidisciplinary Platform against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) against arms trafficking, and made Spanish experts available to Georgia who can help minimise the consequences of a possible phenomenon of uncontrolled arms trafficking.

The two ministers also discussed the future entry into force of the new European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), which will be compulsory for all citizens of countries that are exempt from Schengen visas to stay in the European Union for under 90 days, such as Georgia.

In any case, Grande-Marlaska conveyed to his Georgian counterpart the Government of Spain's congratulations to the Georgian authorities and citizens for obtaining candidate country status for EU membership last December in the framework of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the Union.

This is the second time that Georgian Minister Gomelauri has met his Spanish counterpart in Madrid after a first meeting on 4 April 2022. For his part, Grande-Marlaska travelled to Tbilisi on 16 and 17 February 2023, where he also met with the then Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, a trip that served to agree on the creation of joint and specialised police work teams that reinforce the Cooperation Agreement for the fight against Crime already in place between the two countries.

Non official translation