21 APRIL 2008

CC MEETING IN VILLA NUOVA

      The President of the Consular Corps of Warsaw, the Consul of Lebanon, Mr. Kabalan Frangieh invited the Consuls and Honorary Consuls in Warsaw to a dinner in the restaurant Villa Nuova on the 21th of April 2008.

The Guest of honour for this evening was the Executive Director of Frontex Mr. Ilkka Laitinen accompanied by Mr. Rick Weijermans, the External Relation Officer of Frontex. Among the participants was Mr. Soufiane Adjali, senior UNHCR liaison officer to Frontex.

      33 Consuls attended the meeting which started by an opening speech of Mr. Frangieh in which he welcomed the participants and introduced the speaker Mr. Laitinen, who is heading one of the most important EU agencies.

In his address to the Consular Corps, Mr. Laitinen explained the work of Frontex, its objective and mission. He spoke about the relation of Frontex with EU member states and non EU member states and its role as an independent EU agency in assisting states in the monitoring of their borders.

Mr. Laitinen then answered few questions from the participants.

Below are some photos taken during the dinner.

From left: Mr. Philip Chou and Ms. Dianne Cornell, Consuls of Australia,
Mr. Rick Weijermans, the External Relation Officer of Frontex,
Mr. Ilkka Laitinen and Mr. Kabalan Frangieh

The Guest of Honour Mr. Ilkka Laitinen

Mr. Kabalan Frangieh, the President of the Consular Corps of Warsaw

From left: Mr. Vladimir Zhukov, Consul of Russia, Ms. Ausra Baubliene
and Ms. Lilija Ziniene, Consuls of Lithuania

Mr. Ilkka Laitinen and Mr. Kabalan Frangieh

Second from left: Mr. Soufiane Adjali, senior UNHCR liaison officer to Frontex

Some of the guests

General view of the guests

Mr. Rick Weijermans, Mr. Soufiane Adjali, Ms. Monica Velarde, Consul of Mexico,
Mr. Kabalan Frangieh, Ms. Laura Ranalii, Consul of Italy and Mr. Ahmad Akbar, Consul of Afghanistan