eu-com-schengen-coop

EUROPEAN UNION
DELEGATION
TO CANADA
UNION EUROPEENNE
DELEGATION
AU CANADA
Ottawa, 16 May 2014
LOCAL SCHENGEN COOPERATION (LSC) MEETINGS IN OTTAWA,
CANADA
2013-2014 REPORT 17
1. Introduction
Local Schengen Coordination Meetings are held in the Ottawa Delegation's Boardroom every two
months, usually back to back with the Consular cooperation meetings.
Nearly all Schengen Member States are present at the LSC Meetings. The Luxembourg Honorary
Consul, the first who is resident and based in Ottawa, has been participating in the meetings at the
request of the Embassy of Luxembourg in Washington, as he received supplementary authorization
from the Canadian Foreign Ministry to perform various diplomatic functions on behalf of the
Embassy. The Belgian Consulate in Montreal issues Schengen visas for Luxembourg and the
Danish Embassy handles the Schengen Visas for Sweden, Norway and Iceland. Austria issues visas
for Germany in Ottawa and Germany issues visas for Austria in Toronto.
2. LSC meetings held in 2013-2014
Local Schengen Coordination Meetings were held in Ottawa on 11 April, 13 June, 10 October, 12
December in 2013; and on 13 February in 2014. All were well-attended.
The notice of Meeting and a draft Agenda are sent via AGORA thus encouraging meeting
participants to a regular use of this Member States' informatics tool. A second specific training on
AGORA was provided by the Delegation to the Members of the Group on 8 January 2014.
The LSC Meetings are chaired by the EU Delegation which is also responsible for minutes taking,
consultation for its approval and distribution. Draft minutes are distributed after each meeting, with
a silence procedure for comments.
As the meeting takes place back to back with the Consular cooperation meeting, and attendance at
both include mainly the same colleagues, the usual practice is that the Chairs of both meetings meet
some days in advance of the meeting in order to check on possible agenda items and ensure
synergy.
Occasionally, there are third party presentations to the group which introduce and animate
discussions on topics of relevance. Those presentations take place between both meetings, so that
participants to either of the groups can attend. Topics addressed during the reporting year have
17 April 2013 – March 2014
12893/14 PR/lm 48
DG D 1 A
EN