Brussels, 04/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - The EU ministers for justice and home affairs and their representatives will meet informally in Milan on 8-9 July. Their agenda will focus in particular on the follow-up to action taken in the aftermath of the Lampedusa tragedy on 4 October. In the evening of 7 July, the ministers from nine countries will meet for dinner - over which they will discuss the matter of foreign fighters (they had decided to do this when they were in Luxembourg at the start of June). In particular, they are due to decide on strengthening their exchanges of information - especially as part of their own passenger name record (PNR) systems - as was decided at their Luxembourg meeting (see EUROPE 11096).
On Tuesday 8 July, the meeting will begin with the area of home affairs - which will focus on the immigration taskforce set up after the Lampedusa tragedy that claimed the lives of 366 migrants when their boat capsized off the Italian coast. This debate is to be preceded by a discussion on future home affairs priorities now that the strategic guidelines have been adopted by the European Council (on 27 June). The Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the EU has not yet stated what it expects from this debate but the ministers are expected to return to what has happened since October, including signing the readmission agreement with Turkey, the mobility partnerships with Morocco and Tunisia, the work on regional protection programmes for Syrian refugees or resettlement in the EU, and other cooperation networks. At the European summit, the possibility was discussed of seeing a corps of border-guards set up in the long term.
On 9 July, the justice part of the meeting will focus on data protection, the strategic guidelines adopted on 27 June for future justice policies, and the rather controversial issue of the future European prosecutor - a role which is contested by several member states, such as the Netherlands. (The justice part of the meeting will take place without Viviane Reding, who left her position as European commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship on 1 July in order to take up her seat at the European Parliament as an MEP.)
On the issue of the European prosecutor, the European Commission hopes the member states will quickly conclude that the required unanimity for establishing this role will not be reached and that it is therefore time to start enhanced cooperation on this future prosecutor.
When they were in Luxembourg in June, the ministers confirmed the principle that the European prosecutor will be organised in a collegial manner (college of prosecutors coming from the member states). They also confirmed that, in principle, the prosecutor will primarily be responsible for investigating and prosecuting infringements that damage the EU's financial interests.
As regards the reform of data protection, the Italian Presidency had not yet stated - at the time of EUROPE going to press on 4 July - what aspects it intended to discuss, but it is thought that discussion could focus on the first four chapters of the data protection regulation (but not on the issue of the one-stop-shop, which member states have not yet decided upon). In Luxembourg in early June, the ministers approved several chapters of the regulation - in particular as regards international transfers of personal data and the regulation's territorial scope of application. (SP)