The Council of the EU plans to request the opening of negotiations for cooperation agreements between Eurojust and Argentina, Colombia and Brazil, according to a draft Council decision dated Thursday 14 January, a copy of which has been obtained by EUROPE.
In November, the European Commission recommended the EU Council to give it a mandate to negotiate agreements between the EU and Algeria, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey on cooperation between Eurojust and the competent judicial authorities of these countries (see EUROPE 12606/13).
However, at the meeting of the EU Council’s Working Party on Cooperation in Criminal Matters (COPEN) on 4 December, Eurojust expressed regrets that the Commission had not entirely followed the suggestions that Eurojust had made as regards the choice of third countries for starting negotiations. The agency had indeed suggested starting negotiations, for operational reasons, with Argentina and Colombia (as first priority), and with Brazil (as second priority).
Many Member States supported Eurojust, so the Portuguese Presidency of the Council is now proposing to add these three countries to the initial list drawn up by the Commission.
At the same meeting, the Commission is reported to have stated that it will further reflect on the issue of opening negotiations with one or more Latin-American states.
In its November recommendation, it indicated that EU candidate or potential candidate countries had been prioritised as well as countries which, for geographical reasons, may have a potentially high impact on Europe’s security, such as countries in the Middle East and North Africa region.
The draft EU Council text still has to be discussed by the COPEN working group, before being submitted to the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) for adoption.
See the document: http://bit.ly/3bIw6N6 (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)