Pending the Pact on Asylum and Migration announced by the Von der Leyen Commission, the EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers will focus on the implementation of the European Council's Strategic Agenda 2019-2024 adopted in June 2019 (see EUROPE 12279/1) on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 January in Zagreb. However, no concrete decisions are expected during this meeting.
Thursday will be devoted to the Justice sector. After discussions in the morning on this strategic agenda, ministers will have an exchange of views on the European Judicial Network and how to improve judicial training.
On Friday 24, they will deal with Home Affairs and, after discussing the Strategic Agenda under this aspect, discussions will focus on the new rules on the information systems interoperability, migrant smuggling networks and the new European Border and Coast Guard Agency Regulation.
Strategic agenda - The reflection was launched under the Romanian Presidency of the EU Council and continued under the Finnish Presidency.
In a preparatory note, the Croatian Presidency suggests organising the discussions around four cross-cutting issues: - common values and the Rule of Law; - mutual trust; - protection of the integrity of the common European area; - new technologies, in particular artificial intelligence.
In an annex, it also lists most of the policy areas explored in the reflection process carried out by previous Presidencies, including judicial training, modernisation of judicial systems, protection and promotion of common values, the external dimension of the judicial system, effective control of external borders and a return to a well-functioning Schengen area, a comprehensive and functional migration policy, a Europe that protects and better faces the security challenges of the digital age.
According to a European source, this is expected to be a first, more focused discussion, aiming to materialise the outcome of past discussions into a more structured document. However, nothing concrete is expected to emerge from this meeting and discussions will have to continue, the source said.
Justice - On Thursday, the ministers' session will be devoted to improving judicial cooperation in practice. The discussion should focus on improving existing tools, such as the European Judicial Network or the e-Justice portal.
They will also discuss the challenges of judicial training, identified as a prerequisite for establishing a unified European judicial culture and for the proper application of EU law. The discussion also aims at exchanging views on how to improve and expand the content of training for all judicial professions.
The appointment of the European public prosecutors who will sit in the European Public Prosecutor's Office could also be the subject of bilateral discussions on the sidelines of the informal meeting between the Croatian and Maltese Justice Ministers, according to one source. Malta, which had decided to join the European Public Prosecutor's Office in 2018 (see EUROPE 12077/18), is said to be having difficulties in appointing a candidate, which is delaying the process, according to this source.
"We still have to put pressure on one Member State", confirmed Commissioner Didier Reynders on this subject on Tuesday 21 January in the European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee, without naming Malta.
Home Affairs - Beyond the expected discussion on the migration situation, which could focus on Libya, ministers will discuss the concrete implementation of the interoperability of European databases and the new Frontex regulation.
These two tools represent major changes for the Member States, especially with regard to interoperability, which requires the technical groundwork to be prepared to allow simultaneous connections to all European police databases, be it the Schengen Information System, the European PNR system, the Eurodac database or the Visa Information System.
Regarding Frontex (the European Border and Coast Guard Agency), Member States will have to provide the Agency with 10,000 officers by 2027 and a first tranche of new coastguards and border guards is to be provided in 2021.
The idea of the discussion, scheduled for the afternoon, is to test the Member States' preparation and their ability to meet the deadlines.
Finally, over lunch, ministers will discuss migrant smuggling networks. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Marion Fontana)