DOCUMENTS AND PUBLICATIONS
Report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on International Organised Crime addressed to the EC-Ministers of Home Affairs and Justice (see reference in this FECL)
TREVI Ministerial Meeting Copenhagen, Denmark, on 2 June 1993 , press release of the Danish presidency of the EC/Ministry of Justice, 5 p., in English.
Very summary review of the issues discussed at the meeting: Europol; the signature of a "Ministerial Agreement" constituting the basis for the establishment of the Europol Drug Unit; terrorism; attacks and violence directed against foreigners; environmental crime; money laundering; involvment of motor cycle gangs in cross-border criminal activity (Denmark is to take lead responsibility for a "questionnaire with a view to identifying the scale of the problem and establishing the basis for proposals to enhance the joint action directed against this type of organised crime); additional tasks for the TREVI III Working Group; discussions with third countries (USA, Canada, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Switzerland and Morocco).
Ad hoc Group Immigration: Draft Recommendation concerning checks and expulsion of third country nationals residing or working without authorization , Brussels, 25.5.93, SN 3017/93 WGI 1516, confidential, 5 p., in English.
The paper was submitted to the EC-ministers responsible for immigration at their meeting on 1/2.6.93 in Copenhagen. It proposes common measures with a view to better enforcement of foreigner control and expulsions. Moreover, the report recommends that Member States may also expel "those people who are subject to immigration/aliens provisions who have been involved in the facilitation, harbouring or employment of illegal immigrants". The report advocates the increased use of police checks which "should, in particular, be carried out in respect of persons who are known or suspected of staying or working without authority, including persons whose request for asylum has been rejected". It is further recommended to "examine the types of checks, which would be most appropriate to introduce with a view to detecting third-country nationals who are residing or working illegally...". Among the "types of checks" particularly listed in the report are "checks in view of detecting abuse", i.a. on "persons who have been authorised to be reunited with their family with a view to living together" or "who have received a residence/work permit on the basis of their marriage to a person resident in the Member State".
All recommendations of the Ad Hoc Group were adopted by the immigration ministers on 1/2 June in Copenhagen.
Meeting of Ministers with responsibility for immigration (Copenhagen, 1 and 2 June 1993) , press release of the General Secretariat of the European Council, Brussels, 2.6.93, 7 p. + annex, in English.
Subjects: The Dublin Convention and its ratification and implementation; Compilation of texts on European practice with respect to asylum; Centre for Information, Discussion and Exchange on Asylum (CIREA); draft convention parallel to the Dublin Convention (talks with Austria, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and Canada. According to the press release, ministers noted that "the Dublin Convention formed part of the "acquis" built up by intergovernmental co-operation beween the twelve Member States in the field of justice and home affairs, which the acceding States were to accept".); displaced persons from former Yugoslavia; report to the European Council on free movement of persons; controls at external frontiers (problems betweeen Spain and the UK preventing the signature of the Convention still remain unsolved); Visa requirements (73 third countries now require visas for all EC-member states. The list is to be further discussed by the Ad Hoc Group Immigration); Resolution on harmonization of national policies on family reunification (the ministers suggest they adopted this resolution as a condition "for the successful integration of immigrants lawfully resident in Member States' territories"); checks and expulsion of third country nationals (ministers agreed to a Recommendation based on the report of the Ad Hoc Group Immigration (see above)); annex: commission statement on the report to the European Council in Copenhagen on the implementation of article 8 A of the Treaty of Rome with regard to the free movement of persons.
Ad Hoc group Immigration: Harmonisation of national policies on family reunification, Copenhagen, 1 June 1993 , SN 2828/1/93 WGI 1497 REV 1, resolution adopted by the immigration ministers in Copenhagen, 7 p., in English.
The resolution lists principles which "should govern the national policies of Member States in respect of family reunification for immigrants resident in their territories".
Ministerial Agreement on the Establishment of the Europol Drugs Unit, Copenhagen, 2 June 1993 , (agreement reached by the TREVI ministers), 9 p., in English.
This purely technical-administrative agreement was signed with the obvious intention to give the ongoing establishment of Europol an appearance of legal legitimacy, "considering that the preparation and subsequent entry into force of the Convention will take some time", as it says in the ministerial agreement.
The "agreement pending a convention" provides, i.a., for each member state sending liaison officers to a "central location on or after 1 July 1993" (in other words: no agreement has been reached on Europol's site in the agreement on Europol), in order to constitute the Europol Drug Unit, a "non-operational team for the exchange and analysis of intelligence in relation to illicit drug trafficking, the criminal organisations involved and associated money laundering activities affecting two ore more Member States". The agreement further contains guide-lines and regulations for fields such as treatment of information, data protection, staffing accountability, and finances. Under the chapter "Data Protection" it is stated that the "transmission of personal information to non-Member States or to international organisations [e.g. Interpol, note of the editor] by the liaison officers will not take place". The ministers "instruct their liaison officers to cooperate fully with their respective national data protection authorities in order to enable them to fullfil the requirements [pertaining to the protection of personal data] referred to above."
Existing fora for inter-governmental co-operation on asylum, refugee and migration problems in the European region , prepared by Intergovernmental Consultations within the Council of Europe for the meeting of persons responsible for the provision of assistance in case of mass inflows of persons fleeing their country, Strasbourg, 17.3.93, 18 p., in English.
Draft Report on the Constitution of the European Union, part A , European Parliament, Committee on Institutional Affairs, Rapporteur: Marcelino Oreja Aguirre, 27.4.93, PE 203.601/rev., 20 p., in English.
Eurodac et article 15 de la Convention de Dublin (Eurodac and article 15 of the Dublin Convention), Council of the EC, legal service, Brussels, 18.3.93, 5546/93 JUR 25, 8 p., in French.
Report on Immigration and Asylum Procedure and Appeal Rights in the 12 Member States of the European Community , by Jim Gillespie, Immigration Law Practitioners' Association (ILPA), London, 35 p. Available at: ILPA, 115 Old Street, London EC1V9JR, Tel: +44/71/2501671, Fax: +44/71/2533832.
The introduction to the report points at the "absence of Community-wide common minimum standards of fair procedures and appeals" and stresses that it is "inherently and manifestly undesirable that procedural protections and appeal rights available to non-EC nationals should differ markedly from those guaranteed for EC nationals". As a consequence, 7 proposals for minimum standards of fair procedure are made in the report. The proposals have been drawn up between members of a working group of legal experts from each EC-member State and following a detailed comparison of current procedures and appeal rights in each country. The aim in each case has been to "adopt a standard that would at the very least comply with relevant international obligations and generally accepted standards of good practice".
A convincing result of an approach of European harmonisation in the field of immigration and asylum contrasting pleasantly from the all too well-known search after the "lowest common denominator" as practised in the framework of EC-intergovernmental co-operation, this report is good reading and, hopefully, an exemplary precedent for another common European approach to legal harmonisation, based on the respect of fundamental constitutional principles.
Légiférer pour mieux tuer les droits, le projet de réforme de l'entrée et du séjour des étrangers (Killing rights by making law, the project for a reform of legislation on entry and stay of foreigners in France), Groupe d'information et de soutien des travailleurs immigrés (GISTI), June 1993, Paris, 72 p., in French.
Thorough analysis and comment of Interior Minister Charles Pasqua's anti-immigration bills (the wording of the Pasuqa proposals is included in the paper). The GISTI broshure contains the following chapters: Residence, family, marriage, youth, asylum, social security, judiciary, polygamy, French oversea territories.
Available at: GISTI, Rue des Petites Ecuries, F-75010 Paris, Tel: +33/1 42470709, Fax: +33/1 42470747.