Brussels, 23/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - Ministers for home affairs and justice will gather in Brussels on Thursday 24 and Friday 25 of February for a very busy ministerial session. On Thursday, home affairs ministers will discuss Schengen enlargement (involving Romanian and Bulgarian accession), illegal immigration in southern Europe, particularly Italy, following the upheavals in North Africa (during lunch). The question of the EU/Turkey re-admission agreement will also be discussed in the meeting. Ministers will be examining the new Commission proposal on Passenger Name Records (PNR), presented on 2 February.
On the question of Schengen, the EU 27 will take note of an information report by the Hungarian Presidency, which examines the state of progress in Bulgaria and Romania's joining the Schengen area. A decision by this Council on accession has been abandoned, following misgivings expressed by some of the member states. It will therefore simply involve an evaluation of where these two countries currently stand in the process. Up until now, Romania has fulfilled all the technical criteria required but Bulgaria has failed on management of its borders, particularly with Turkey. An experts' mission will take place at the end of March to see whether Bulgaria has rectified this matter. On Thursday, member states are unlikely to be satisfied with simply talking about technical criteria and a political discussion is planned during the meeting, which will take into account the political aspects of this dossier, namely, the fight against corruption and legal reforms. In June, the dossier will be back on the Council's agenda. The Hungarian presidency has promised to reach a decision on the entry of the two countries into the Schengen area, before the end of the first half of 2011.
On the issue of immigration and events in North Africa, ministers are expected to focus on the question of strengthening Frontex agency operations, as well as its operational capacity. This will be done with a view to certain member states implementing a sustainable European border guard system, which can be activated at any given moment. In the morning, ministers are also expected to tackle the question of asylum in Europe, by studying the on-going reforms in Greece. Nonetheless, they are not expected to be able to discuss the question of “burden sharing” in this domain. With regard to asylum seekers redeployment in other European member states, the Commission proposed greater solidarity, notably through a mechanism suspending the sending back of asylum seekers from one country to another. Revision of the Dublin II system is meeting with resistance from some countries, such as France, which do not wish to change the current rules, enabling these asylum seekers to be sent back to the country where they first arrived in the EU.
The justice section will be held on Friday. Ministers will discuss the state of play with regard to the Commission proposal on the right of information in criminal proceedings, data protection and the draft directive on information system attacks. It will also adopt conclusions on implementation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Their agenda will also include revision of the Brussels I regulation on civil and trade disputes. The Commission has put forward new proposals in recognition of decisions made by national legal bodies. (S.P./transl.fl)