Brussels, 25/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 25 February, the EU College of Commissioners was due to hold two policy discussions on the future of justice and home affairs in the aftermath of the Stockholm Programme, and the future mechanism for monitoring the rule of law within the EU, raised in September by José Manuel Barroso and the subject of a joint initiative by the foreign ministers of Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. The European Commission will unveil a post-Stockholm report on 11 March, setting out priority action areas for post-2014. The justice and home affairs ministers also held an informal discussion on the subject in Athens in late January, with the home affairs representatives arguing in favour of decisive action against illegal immigration and the possible use of border control tools, such as the VIS or the SIS, to prevent European fighters from leaving for external theatres of war.
As regards the rule of law mechanism, the Commission is soon to unveil the resources to make it easier for it to use Article 7 of the Treaty, which is currently seen as a “nuclear bomb” as it strips a country directly of its voting rights within the Council if violations of the fundamental rights and values of the EU are noted on its soil. The Commission would like an interim solution, which would allow it to take action against these infringements more easily, as triggering Article 7, as it curretnly stands, is virtually impossible to do. EUROPE will return to this issue. (SP/transl.fl)