Resultaten van de Raad Justitie en Binnenlandse Zaken `24-25 juli 2008 (en)
The Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) met in Brussels on 24 and 25 July. The morning of the 24th was devoted to national identity and mutually-supportive development in the area of immigration, and chaired by Brice Hortefeux, the French Minister for Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Mutually-Supportive Development. The afternoon session was dedicated to home affairs and chaired by Michèle Alliot-Marie, the French Minister for the Interior, Overseas France and Territorial Communities. The morning of the 25th was devoted to justice-related issues and chaired by, Keeper of the Seals and the French Minister for Justice.
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Mr Hortefeux updated the Council on progress that has been made with the draft European Pact on Immigration and Asylum. This text, for which there was a broad measure of agreement as to its principle and content at the informal meeting of justice and home affairs ministers in Cannes on 7 July 2008, still requires several editorial adjustments. The Member States confirmed their full support for this initiative which has become a European proposal.
Jacques Barrot, Vice President of the European Commission, presented the Council's communications of 17 June 2008 concerning immigration and the action plan on asylum. He stressed the strong similarities between these texts and the draft Pact.
The Council also held a policy debate on two draft directives: one relating to the conditions of entry and residence for third country nationals for the purposes of highly qualified employment; the other concerning sanctions that may be taken against employers of illegal third-country nationals.
This debate highlighted the complementary nature of these texts with a view to the implementation of a fair, balanced and coherent policy which promotes and organises legal immigration while combating illegal immigration.
Lastly, the Council adopted the conclusions on the reception of Iraqi refugees in the Member States of the European Union. The Council reaffirmed that the main objective is to create the conditions under which displaced Iraqi citizens and refugees from the neighbouring countries can return home safely. The ministers agreed to continue discussions on this issue at the next Council session after contacts with the Iraqi authorities and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
During the session dedicated to home affairs on the afternoon of Thursday 24 July, Michèle Alliot-Marie obtained the unanimous support of her fellow ministers for the three items on the agenda.
First, for the Passenger Name Record (PNR) project, which aims to allow the competent agencies in the Member States to use passenger data held by airlines - notably for anti-terrorism purposes - an agreement was reached on the necessity of equipping the European Union with such an instrument and the method to be followed for its implementation, i.e. further discussions as to the scale of the system, its aims, the rules governing data protection and the need to involve a certain number of stakeholders in the process (European Parliament, data protection authorities, professional representatives from the sectors concerned).
Second, the Council decided to pass on to the Commission the report by the Future Group, initiated by Germany and bringing together the two trio Presidencies (Germany, Portugal, Slovenia and France, Czech Republic, Sweden). This report marks an important contribution to the Union's multi-annual programme in the field of internal security.
Lastly, the Council approved the French Minister's proposal concerning the creation of a European platform to combat cyber crime. This system will be hosted by Europol and will issue alerts about offences detected on the Internet, particularly child pornography. The Council also lent its support to the Presidency's proposal for drawing up a global action plan this autumn to combat cyber crime.
On 25 July, the 27 ministers for justice of the European Union reached a political agreement on Eurojust and the European Judicial Network in criminal matters.
This agreement will strengthen judicial cooperation in Europe in the fight against organised crime. A round-the-clock crisis centre will be set up within Eurojust and links with the European Judicial Network strengthened. This represents a major step forward for the European Judicial Area.
The European Commission also presented the ECRIS project on the electronic interconnection of the criminal records systems in the 27 Member States. This will give a solid judicial framework to the scheme and expand it beyond the pilot programme involving 17 countries that has been in operation since 2003. This cooperation tool is a concrete response to the needs expressed by judges and magistrates.
The ministers for justice also wished to continue their work in the field of family law and the rules concerning applicable law in matrimonial matters.
Following the ministers for home affairs, the ministers of justice passed on to the Commission their Future Group report with a view to drawing up the new multi-annual programme for judicial cooperation.