Riga, 30/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - After the roadmap against terrorism from EU home affairs ministers on Thursday 29 January, the heads of state and/or government (who are due to meet on 12 February) received the strongly worded recommendations from EU justice ministers, meeting in Riga, on Friday 30 January. The justice ministers call on European leaders to review the 2008 framework decision on tackling terrorism and to bring it into line with the UN resolution of September of last year that defines terrorism.
The heads of state and/or government will also be asked about extending the powers of Eurojust, the EU judicial cooperation agency, so as to increase cooperation with third countries and gather more information from them. Some systems, such as the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS), should also be extended to the information in the criminal records of non-EU countries.
Justice ministers set five major priorities, said European Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova, including tackling anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and racism and xenophobia in general, and making maximum use of European cooperation, such as the European arrest warrant and mutual assistance instruments. On the financial front, the directive on money-laundering, on which agreement was recently reached, should be implemented as quickly as possible. Ministers also want to amend the legal framework as soon as possible and it is in that context, outside the framework decision on terrorism, that reform of European data protection rules comes, the Commissioner said. She called for talks on this issue to be speeded up (see other article). All these areas for discussion and work were due to be set out a little later in a joint statement by EU justice and home affairs ministers to European Council President Donald Tusk, said Latvian Justice Minister Dzintars Rasnacs.
With regard to the framework decision, Commission and justice ministers are calling for EU leaders, at the European Council on 12 February, to recommend adoption of an amendment to the 2008 framework decision on terrorism (which itself amended an initial framework decision dating from 2002). This text seeks to harmonise the definition of “terrorist” crimes, trying to bring consistency to the criminal justice responses among member states. For example, in some member states, the definition of recruitment takes in the financing of terrorism, notes a Commission report dating from September. Or again, in several member states, any person who is aware that his/her activities are encouraging terrorist offences is liable to sanctions. UN Resolution 2178, adopted in September, seeks to extend to foreign terrorist fighters, particularly those recruited by Islamic State and al-Nosra Front, sanctions currently directed against individuals and entities targeted by the Committee established to combat al-Qaeda. As already suggested by Anti-terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, the definition of “foreign fighter” as set out in the UN resolution should be transposed in a framework decision, thus harmonising member states' criminal response to this kind of terrorism. The reform of European data protection rules seemed to be the poor relation in this discussion on terrorism on Friday but the Latvian minister promised the best possible balance between the imperatives of protecting European citizens and respect for their fundamental rights. (SP)