The European Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) will meet in Lille on 3 and 4 February for an informal JHA meeting under the French Presidency of the Council of the EU, before meeting again in Brussels in a month’s time for a formal Council on 3 and 4 March.
EU Ministers of the Interior will first meet on 3 February for an informal discussion focusing on crisis management in Europe, radicalisation and lessons learned from recent events in Afghanistan and Belarus for border and migration management, according to the short summary provided to the press on the website of the French Presidency of the EU Council (FPEU).
Schengen reform
The evening before, on 2 February, the ministers will also have met with the French President, Emmanuel Macron, in Tourcoing, who will have told them about his plans for the reform of the Schengen Borders Code, which was presented on 14 December by the Commission (see EUROPE 12853/1).
The president plans to set up a ‘Schengen Council’ which will bring together the ministers of the Schengen countries at the next formal EU Council meeting on 4 March, according to information provided to the French media.
However, a ‘forum’ already exists in the form of the ‘Mixed Committee’, which brings together, at each ‘Home Affairs Council’, the ministers or ministerial representatives of the Schengen Area countries. The French president will therefore have to explain to the ministers on Wednesday evening what the new political steering role of this ‘Council’ of the Schengen Area will be.
Pact on Migration and Asylum
Thursday’s discussions on the Pact on Migration and Asylum will be the main focus of attention. Paris aims to be able to validate, as early as at the formal EU Council in March, certain principles of the Pact, such as certain elements of the regulation on the ‘screening’ of migrants at the external borders, such as the type of controls. At this stage, elements related to detention and the potential creation of new detention centres are still excluded, as they are strongly opposed to by the southern EU countries. In this 'gradual' approach, as Paris called it, the idea would also be to move forward on a solidarity mechanism, in return, via a relocation of migrants and asylum seekers on a voluntary basis, as was the case with the Valletta agreement in 2019.
These proposals do not, in stricto sensu, take up the texts presented in 2020 by the Commission, which included a mandatory relocation dimension in the solidarity measures, but, as this mandatory dimension has the potential to block any progress, Paris therefore prefers to start with the voluntary principle.
According to one source, Member States are “a little more open” than before to this multi-stage approach, although a number of things remain to be defined. This is the case, for example, of the targeted public for these voluntary relocations, or the nature of the alternative contributions to relocation (the Commission has proposed a binding corrective mechanism, but it has not been discussed at this stage of the Presidency’s work).
The French Presidency also wants to make progress by March on the Eurodac Regulation and the creation of a new category for people rescued at sea. However, there was no consensus on this new category in 2021.
Finally, it also wants to work on secondary movements between Member States, notably through the convergence of asylum systems, but, according to this source, the discussion has yet to make much progress.
Justice
On 4 February, it will be the turn of the EU Ministers of Justice to meet in Lille for a day devoted to three major topics: combatting hate speech; child abduction alert systems; the recognition of parentage links established within the EU.
Combating hate speech
In its priorities for the next 6 months, the FPEU has indicated that it will support the European Commission’s December proposal to extend the list of offences under Article 83 of the TFEU to include hate crimes and hate speech (see EUROPE 12850/16). After unanimous adoption in the EU Council and approval by the European Parliament, the Commission will be able to make legislative proposals to this effect. The Ministers of Justice had already discussed this issue at their last EU Council in December.
Representatives from Google, Meta and Twitter will participate in an exchange with the ministers on the morning of 4 February. This will be an opportunity to look at the relationship that these operators may have with judicial authorities. Laure Beccuau, the Paris Public Prosecutor, will also be present during the exchange.
Child abduction alert systems
France wants to relaunch work on abduction alerts within the EU, even though there is currently no European system. The ministers will discuss the possibility of extending alerts beyond national borders and the possible coordination of Member States’ systems. This could, according to the FPEU, make them more effective.
Recognition of parentage
The FPEU also wants to fill the European legislative gap concerning the recognition of parentage between Member States. The Ministers of Justice will discuss this issue to assess the appropriateness of having a legislative initiative in this respect. They are expected, as well, to discuss what form this might take. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal and Solenn Paulic)