Brussels, 05/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - On 6-7 December in Brussels, ministers for justice and home affairs will be meeting up to discuss the “home affairs” part of their remit. No decision will be made at this meeting but progress is expected in several areas of the justice area.
On Thursday, in the field of home affairs, ministers will first of all take note of the progress made in the asylum package. Two texts are currently being negotiated, including the text on access procedures for police forces to the digital fingerprints of asylum seekers in the Eurodac system. Both texts are overdue but, if all goes well, should be finalised at the latest by end January, a European source said on Wednesday. This will therefore make it possible to set up the famous Common European Asylum System (CEAS) almost according to schedule.
The home ministers together with their colleagues for justice will, during the afternoon, also tackle the matter of data protection and reform of the 1995 rules. A report on the state of progress of work will be put the ministers. Reform provides for a general regulation and a specific directive on police cooperation matters. The latter is currently marking time, raising a series of concerns pertaining to how cooperation works with third countries such as the United States. The regulation came under a little more discussion but concerns too many fields for an agreement to be reached rapidly. Although Ireland makes it a priority, some delegations do not anticipate agreement on the regulation under its presidency.
As far as the rest goes, ministers will again hear observations from the European counter-terrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove, who will draw up an annual report of European strategy in this field. Other than during a lunch break dedicated among other things to visa policy in the EU and to the future clause for the suspension of visa-free schemes granted to third countries, the future of the Schengen area should not be tackled except in the last “health check” published by the Commission in November, which did not show any irregularities. The clause for the suspension of the visa liberalisation schemes essentially aimed at Balkan states like Serbia or the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. It was the subject of an agreement on Tuesday 4 December in trialogue with Parliament, which obtained some compensation in the field of reciprocity. This agreement, however, has still to be endorsed by the permanent representatives and will not be officially on the agenda. Still on the subject of Schengen, the integration of Romania and Bulgaria will not be on the agenda, with ministers having already decided at the end of summer to delay any decision until the next Council in March.
Ministers will also look at implementation of the second generation Schengen Information System, the SIS2, which is also several months behind schedule while due to take effect during the first quarter 2013. No items on the agenda, however, are foreseen for reform of governance of the area of free movement, as the Council and Parliament have still not managed to agree officially. One diplomatic source said there are still ways for overcoming the crisis and these are currently being discussed. They include greater Parliament involvement in the Schengen evaluation mechanism and guarantees of participation when reform is necessary. No impetus was given, however, for finalising such discussion. The Parliament had expressed opposition in June this year when the Council had decided to oust it from co-decision procedure and to only opt for consultation each time a change is made to the Schengen methods of evaluation.
Justice: some progress expected. For “justice”, several general guidelines are foreseen, including on criminal sanctions applicable to market abuse and manipulation, and the freezing and confiscation of assets, which could relate also to persons not yet found guilty, a source said, as well as mutual recognition measures relating to civil protection, measures initially set in place to address the problem of women ill treated. The criminal section of these protection orders has already been endorsed. Other debates are expected on the protection of the EU's financial interests, on the “drugs” strategy and on the sequestration of bank accounts when debt is overdue - measures intended to help SMEs in particular. (SP/transl.jl)