European Justice Ministers agreed at their informal meeting on Friday 29 January on the need to better protect vulnerable adults in the EU—one of the main priorities of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU.
“All Ministers of Justice were very receptive to the idea that we should move forward to protect vulnerable adults as a matter of urgency, mainly by ratifying the Hague Convention of 2000 on the protection of adults and if possible make even further progress by doing additional work”, said Portuguese Justice Minister Francisca Van Dunem at a press conference after the meeting. Only 10 Member States have so far ratified this Convention.
“My services have launched a legal study to address the outstanding obstacles for full ratification and the adoption of EU legislation to complement this instrument”, announced the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders.
In addition to this study, the Commission has also launched a study to analyse the current legal situation and problems in cross-border judicial cooperation.
According to one European source, during the discussion, the ministers stressed the importance of finding common solutions, but rather by improving existing tools than through new European legislation.
The issue of vulnerable persons was also addressed in another discussion on the digitalisation of judicial systems, where several ministers stressed the need not to exclude anyone during this transition.
Counterfeiting. Ministers also discussed the links between counterfeiting and organised crime. “There is a current discussion for having minimum rules for counterfeiting offences at EU level. But we are not yet there”, said Mr Reynders, adding that the link between counterfeiting and organised crime will be addressed in the ‘EU Agenda on Organised Crime’, which will be adopted under the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU.
The increase in counterfeit medical products in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic is of immediate concern to Member States.
Europol has recently issued several warnings and called on Member States to be extremely vigilant, particularly against fake Covid-19 vaccines. In March 2020, the European agency was already worried about the increase in the sale of counterfeit protective equipment and pharmaceuticals (see EUROPE 12456/9).
“What was quite clear is that all Member States need to make progress to approve and ratify the MEDICRIME convention of the Council of Europe, which criminalises the sale of illegal medical products and counterfeit medical products. We also agreed that we could perhaps go a little bit further”, said the Portuguese Minister.
European Public Prosecutor’s Office. The establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office was not on the agenda of the meeting per se, but Commissioner Reynders sent a further reminder to the Member States about the delays in the preparations as he has made a habit of doing at every meeting of the European Justice Ministers (see EUROPE 12614/13).
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office still lacks its 140 European delegated prosecutors. So far, only 18 European delegated prosecutors from four Member States could be appointed (see EUROPE 12644/3).
“We will probably be ready with about 15 Member States by the beginning of March to start operations, but there are still difficulties in six or seven of the 22 Member States participating in the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. I hope that these delays can be avoided, I will in any case insist once again today”, he stated before the meeting.
Malta, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Finland are among the countries experiencing difficulties and are at risk of not meeting the deadline. For its part, the Portugal has started the procedure and is awaiting the opinion of its Parliament on several proposed candidates, indicated Ms Van Dunem.
According to a European source, only the Commission commented, since it was a straightforward information point. And the controversy surrounding the appointment of European Public Prosecutors, in particular the appointment of the Portuguese Public Prosecutor (see EUROPE 12634/11), was not mentioned. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)