The Justice Ministers will meet again in Brussels on Friday 4 March, one month after their informal meeting in Lille (see EUROPE 12884/1, 12884/2, 12884/3). Several of the topics discussed there are back on the agenda, such as the fight against hate speech and hate crime and the electronic evidence package. Fundamental rights and the rule of law will also be addressed. Over lunch, the ministers will discuss the situation in Ukraine, focussing on judicial cooperation in criminal and civil matters.
Hate speech and hate crimes
The French Presidency of the Council of the EU wants to adopt conclusions to include hate speech and hate crime in the European criminal offences of Article 83 TFEU. The Commission published a communication to this effect in December 2021 (see EUROPE 12850/16).
France had hoped to adopt the conclusions on 4 March, but several countries “remain to be convinced”, according to a European source (see EUROPE 12899/19). Some call for more work on the text, while others need to hold debates in their parliaments before they can validate the conclusions. Unanimous agreement is required to trigger the addition of a criminal offence to the EU list. The FPEU now hopes for an agreement before the end of the semester.
Electronic evidence
The participants should “assess the progress” made in the inter-institutional (‘trilogue’) negotiations on the Regulation and the Directive on electronic evidence. One such meeting took place on 1 March, but it only served to restate positions. According to one source, the French Presidency of the Council of the EU (FPEU) has yet to submit a proposal and no date is set for a further trilogue until then.
In December, and again in early February, the FPEU received a proposal for a legislative package from the European Parliament. According to a document made available to EUROPE, France has mainly focussed on a methodology for future discussions, separating the two texts into topics. Since January, technical work in the EU Council has resulted in “a clear and comprehensive view of the Member States’ position on all these issues”, according to the document.
Fundamental rights
Ministers will have an exchange with the Director of the Agency for Fundamental Rights, Michael O'Flaherty. They should also adopt conclusions on the fight against racism and antisemitism, supporting the two initiatives proposed by the Commission (see EUROPE 12805/26, 12563/2).
Rule of law
Although this subject is usually dealt with by the Ministers of the Interior, the French Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, is keen to have an exchange on this subject with his counterparts on 4 March. The discussion should focus in particular on a potential European statute for lawyers. “The protection of lawyers seems to me to be a subject on which Europe must mobilise”, said the French minister during a speech before the MEPs of the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs on 28 February. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)