EN_CPT_AR.book Page 14 Monday, October 25, 2010 5:14 PM CPT General Report 2009-2010 High-level talks with national authorities 18. It is standard practice for CPT visiting delegations to hold talks with the national authorities, at both the outset and the end of the visit. The end-of-visit talks usually involve the participation of Ministers and are the occasion for the delegation to present its preliminary observations. On occasion, high-level talks are very much the core of a visit, and this was the case during the ad hoc visits to the Czech Republic in October 2009 (paragraph 6) and to the Russian Federation in April 2010 (paragraph 12). 19. The CPT has also continued in appropriate cases to pursue its dialogue with Parties to the ECPT by organising high-level talks outside the framework of a given visit. During the period covered by this General Report, such talks were organised in Greece. The main objective of the talks, which were held in Athens on 18 and 19 January 2010, was to gauge the commitment of the Greek authorities to combating impunity within the police, to improving the conditions of detention of irregular migrants, and to addressing long-standing problems in the prison system. In this context, the CPT was keen to learn about the measures already taken or being considered by the new Government to tackle the problems found by the Committee in the course of its visits in recent years. The talks were carried out in a spirit of openness and all parties expressed their desire to improve cooperation. Plenary meetings and activities of subgroups 20. The CPT held three one-week plenary meetings during the twelve months covered by this General Report – in November 2009, and in March and July 2010. A total of 20 visit reports were adopted by the Committee at these meetings, eight of them having been drawn up under the expedited drafting procedure (according to which draft visit reports prepared by visiting delegations that are circulated at least two weeks before a plenary meeting are taken as approved without debate, save for paragraphs in respect of which a discussion has been specifically requested in advance). In view of the influx of new members at the end of 2009 and in order to refresh the skills of all members, a half-day during each of the plenary meetings in March and July 2010 was devoted to training in the techniques of visiting places of deprivation of liberty and interviewing detained persons. 14