Brussels, 07/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - MEP Sophie in 't Veld (ALDE, Netherlands) was critical in the European Parliament civil liberties committee on Thursday 6 November of the lack of information provided by the Council and the Commission to the Parliament on the justice and home affairs measures that the United Kingdom is preparing to quit.
Less than four weeks before the 1 December deadline, she called for the list of measures - 29 non-Schengen measures and 6 relating to the Schengen acquis - to be made available to the Parliament. During a brief roundtable discussion, during which a number of MEPs spoke, Jan-Philipp Albrecht (Greens/EFA, Germany) expressed concern at the possibility of the United Kingdom leaving the European Court of Human Rights, even though the Court has no connection with the current opt-out debate.
Almost 130 JHA measures have been shunned by London, which has elected to keep only 35 (see EUROPE 11156). One of these particularly symbolic measures, the European arrest warrant, will be put to the vote in the House of Commons, the UK lower chamber, on Monday 10 November.
The Council and the Commission have to give their approval on these new arrangements by 1 December, but provision for a seven-day transition period has been made in case there is any delay, so that the United Kingdom does not suffer a legal hiatus with regard to the measures it already applies and wants to continue to apply. The Council has to come to a unanimous decision on the six Schengen-related measures (London has, for instance, asked to rejoin the SIS 2 system), but Spain, which is against London's request to leave the Prüm decision on cross-border cooperation, is thought to be maintaining its reservation. The Friends of the Presidency group, set up by the Greek Presidency of the Council in February 2014, met on Friday 7 November to take stock. Financial points were also discussed: the United Kingdom will have to repay some money (€1.5 million according to a Commission estimate) if it opts out of the Prüm decision. (SP)