During the EU Home Affairs Council on Thursday 8 March, the EU28 home affairs ministers and their representatives will look into a series of issues linked to security and terrorism, like cooperation with the Western Balkans, the interoperability of European information systems and the state of progress of the European PNR directive.
They will also review the action taken over recent months to reduce migrant flows and to strengthen the EU's external borders, but they will avoid the subject of reform of the Dublin Regulation on asylum seekers as this still has to be dealt with at the technical level and is not yet on the ministers' agenda.
Over lunch, the ministers and their representatives will look into measures to fight illegal content on the internet, with several member states being expected to reiterate their request for a legislative initiative from the Commission on this subject.
Security and counter-terrorism
As regards security and counter-terrorism, the ministers are expected to begin speaking about how Operation Sofia (a Common Security and Defence Policy mission) can also provide them with more information on counter-terrorism, irregular immigration or crime linked to this phenomenon, like human trafficking.
They will speak about the importance of ensuring continuity between operations conducted externally (which do not relate to the domain of justice and home affairs) and the (rightly JHA) European agencies, enabling Europol, for example, to be given "legally exploitable" data, a European source said on Wednesday 7 March. These external operations 'brew' interesting information on trafficking and crime, and even on terrorism, but this is lost in not being sufficiently exploited. The subject is complicated from a legal point of view, and the idea is thus to try a pilot project around a team of agents sent aboard the operation's naval ship who are tasked with gathering and identifying data that can then be transmitted to Europol. The ministers will be asked to approve this pilot project, which some countries want to accelerate as it has now been discussed for over a year, according to the same source.
The ministers will also speak more broadly about the role of the European agencies in counter-terrorism, as well as about strengthening cooperation in this domain with the Western Balkan countries.
Interoperability of information systems
As regards the interoperability of search and repression, at the end of 2017 the Commission proposed creating a unique portal for repressive forces, enabling them, during a search, to have information on an individual contained in the different European databases, like the entry/exit system, the PNR or the Schengen Information System. The ministers will discuss these ideas. For some member states, like France, the Home Affairs Council will also be the opportunity to speak about an old demand – extending the register of data from the entry/exit system to EU nationals.
Fight against illegal online content
Over lunch, the discussion will focus on illegal content on the internet. Several countries want to keep up pressure on the Commission for it to put forward a legislative initiative. Work on this is still not considered enough by some member states, which would like internet companies, for example, to set up a reporting mechanism for their work. France, Germany and the UK would like a legislative initiative before or over the summer. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)