JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS COUNCIL MEETS IN BRUSSELS
The Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs of the 15 EU member states (JHA-Council) met in Brussels on 25-26 September. Items addressed by the ministers included Europol, the fight against terrorism and organised crime, the common list of countries whose citizens need a visa to enter the Union, asylum policies, racism, and judicial and police cooperation with third countries.
Europol muddle continues
The Convention on Europol signed in July 1996 is an "unfinished" legal text. This is a consequence of the disagreement on fundamental issues that has characterised the work on Europol from the very beginning. Under strong political pressure to finally make some progress, the member states signed a Convention text that is hardly more than a fairly empty "legal shell". The wording of many instrumental provisions is vague and elastic. This allowed the member states to sign the Convention in spite of continuing fundamental disagreements. As a result, some of the legal and technical stumbling blocks preventing the implementation of Europol have still to be removed. The disputes have not been solved, merely postponed.
This is evident from the long list of controversial items that must be resolved prior to an implementation of the Convention.
No fewer than seven such items were on the agenda of the Brussels meeting of the JHA ministers:
- the internal rules of Europol's Management Board;
the status of the Europol staff;
privileges and immunities;
rules pertaining to the type of information to be stored and processed in Europol's highly sensitive Analysis registers;
the status of the liaison officers;
the protection of confidentiality; and
financial regulations.
On all these issues little progress, if all, seems to have been made at the Brussels meeting. At the end of the meeting the Council only held out the prospect of achieving agreement "on the principle" of the internal rules of the Management Board and the status of the staff, at its next formal meeting in November. As for the other items on the agenda, the Council instructed the K.4 working group on Europol to "continue its work". This is the sort of diplomatic wording the Council usually chooses when no agreement is in sight.
As for the thorny question of jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the Spanish Presidency says that agreement on the principle of preliminary rulings by the ECJ could be reached in November on the basis of a Spanish proposition. Nothing was said about a possible role for the ECJ in disputes between the member states. The idea of a right for individual citizens to have their complaints considered by the ECJ was dropped long ago.
Europol Drugs Unit (EDU) expanding rapidly
The Council approved both Europol-EDU's report of activities for the first six months of 1995 and its working programme for the second six months period.
The two EDU documents are summarised in a briefing paper from the Danish Ministry of Justice to the Legal Committee of the Danish parliament. Inter alia , the following activities are named in the working programme:
- elaboration of a strategy for combating money laundering (a report on the subject is to be presented to the JHA Council in November);
a report on cooperation with regard to the prosecution of trafficking in nuclear and radioactive materials;
a project group on criminality linked to the smuggling of illegal immigrants;
an evaluation of bilateral and multilateral activities with regard to illegal trade in stolen motor vehicles; and
the setting up of EDU standard procedures pertaining to "controlled delivery" (delivery under covert police surveillance), observation techniques in the context of such operations, and the drawing up of so-called "smuggler profiles".
This list reveals that the EDU is currently focusing on new activities resulting from the widening of its remit agreed by the JHA Council in March (see FECL No.32: "Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels", "Muddling with Europol: Who wants what?").
Moreover, the EDU has set up a project group charged with the technical and practical preparations in view of an implementation of the Europol Convention as early as possible. In particular, this involves plans to set up Europol's future computerised information system. The group is to collect bids from hardware and software producers, train the personnel, and carry out quality controls on the system.
JHA cooperation with third countries
A number of information meetings at ministerial level with third countries were held or are planned in the wake of the Brussels JHA Council.
Traditionally, such meetings have taken place with the countries associated to the former TREVI group, i.e. mainly the USA, Canada, Switzerland, Norway and Morocco.
Meanwhile, the JHA Council has extended cooperation to the central and eastern European countries, including the Baltic states, as well as to Cyprus and Malta. Some form of cooperation in the field of the fight against drugs is also to take place with the Andean Pact states (Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador).
The Council adopted a project of common action of the EU member states and the associated countries of Eastern and Central Europe in the fields of justice cooperation and the fight against international organised crime. The planned cooperation will especially cover the types of crimes under the remit of the EDU. The Council is believed to have discussed police and Customs cooperation, the fight against document forgery, visa policies, agreements on the return of illegal immigrants and rejected asylum seekers, the project of a police academy in Budapest and moves for the associated countries to join the relevant conventions in the field of justice cooperation.
Cyprus' and Malta's planned membership of the EU, and the co-operation this would entail were discussed at a separate meeting with the Ministers of these two countries on 25 September. The discussions focused on the fight against organised crime and illegal immigration.
Another meeting between the Troika of JHA ministers and representatives was planned for 26 September with the Andean Pact countries. The main topic on the agenda was an exchange of views on a possible agreement between the EU and the Andean Pact countries pertaining to the control of exports of chemical ingredients used to make illegal drugs. Many of these "precursory" ingredients are legal, while the final product is illegal. However, it is not evident from documents available to us whether the meeting actually took place.
The Council also agreed to give the European Commission a mandate to discuss with the Organisation of American States (OAS) how to control exports of "precursory" ingredients.
The Spanish presidency on terrorism
The Presidency declared its firm intention to promote work aiming at improving "operational measures" against terrorism, among other things, by developing existing networks of cooperation between the competent services of the member states.
With a view to facilitating exchange of information on terrorism between police forces, the member states will consider the harmonisation and review of respective national legislation.
Islamic fundamentalist activities were once again singled out as presenting the main current terrorist threat to European interests.
Racism and xenophobia
The Council discussed a draft project for "Common Action" of the EU states against racism and xenophobia, drawn up by the Spanish Presidency.
The Common Action is to focus on harmonising law and practice of the various member states and improved international cooperation.
No agreement has, however, been reached so far on whether the Common Action will be legally binding on member states or not.
Visa and asylum policies
The ministers finally approved a list of 100 countries deemed to pose a security or immigration threat. Citizens of these countries will need a visa to enter the Union. The list will include the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY: Serbia and Montenegro) and Macedonia. Earlier, Italy had alone opposed the inclusion of the FRY on the list.
The Council indicated it was open to demands from the UNHCR for the EU to take in more refugees from the former Yugoslavia, but abstained from making any commitment.
According to the UNHCR, more than 50,000 places are needed.
Once again, the question of "burden sharing" in dealing with massive refugee influxes came up, but no agreement was reached.
"Burden sharing" as understood seems to consist in the Ministers sharing the view that the burden must be kept out of the Union.
Sources: Reuters, 25-26.9.95; Briefing paper on the agenda of the JHA Council of 25-26.10.95, sent by the Danish Ministry of Justice to the Committee on legal Affairs of the Folketing (Danish parliament), Copenhagen, 14.9.95, 29 p., in Danish.