The Ministers and representatives of the Ministers of Home Affairs and Justice of the EU are meeting again by videoconference on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 January, respectively, for an informal meeting dominated by the future of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, on the Justice side, by the cross-border difficulties faced by vulnerable people and the digitisation of judicial systems.
The German Presidency of the EU Council had made modest progress in December on the outlines of the Pact presented in September by the European Commission. Above all, it had noted the persistence of disagreements on the balance to be struck between responsibility at the external borders and solidarity within the EU (see EUROPE 12622/3). A progress report thus noted the reluctance of the countries of the South to implement a new procedure at the borders that is too cumbersome and practically equivalent to new detention centres. The so-called Visegrád countries expressed their concern about the project of sponsorships for the return of irregular migrants in times of crisis, sponsorships that are difficult to carry out in a given period of 8 months and therefore amount to disguised obligatory relocations in their eyes.
At the beginning of January, the Portuguese Minister of the Interior, Eduardo Cabrita, announced that he would have contacts with these different countries with opposing visions. He began the year with a meeting with southern EU countries, from which he learned that they do not necessarily advocate binding relocations of asylum seekers in all Member States (see EUROPE 12632/21). However, he had not been able to set high ambitions for the Pact, given these divergent views.
On Thursday, the Minister is therefore expected to take stock of these various contacts with his counterparts and tell them how he intends to move forward on the various texts of this Pact, including five legislative initiatives. The discussion should remain general, according to one source.
In the afternoon, the Ministers will discuss the Schengen free movement area. They will take stock of the state of health in the area, which has been battered by the pandemic since March 2020. This discussion should feed into the Schengen reform, announced by the Commission for before the summer, which will also have to draw lessons from the latest terrorist attacks in the EU.
Finally, they will discuss the future of Europol and its new mandate presented in December. On this point, the Portuguese Presidency hopes to obtain a general agreement at the Home Affairs Council in March.
Justice. On Friday, the European Ministers of Justice will discuss the challenges and solutions for the digitalisation of justice. Drawing lessons from the judicial paralysis caused by Covid-19, the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU had indicated in its work programme that it intended to give impetus to the use of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, in the field of Justice in the coming months (see EUROPE 12628/18).
Ministers will then be invited to reflect on the challenges faced by vulnerable adults in cross-border situations. The implementation of the EU strategy on victims’ rights for the period 2020-2025 will indeed be one of the main priorities (see EUROPE 12513/11) of the Portuguese Presidency, which had also indicated in its work programme its intention to encourage reflection on the current state of protection of vulnerable adults in the EU.
In addition, they will exchange views on criminal law and intellectual property rights, focusing on the link between counterfeiting and organised crime. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Marion Fontana)