The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, which began its term on Friday 1 July, will continue to manage work related to the care and integration of Ukrainian refugees into the societies of the Member States for six months, while trying to make further progress on the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’, it announced in its work programme.
Taking up the gradualist approach initiated by Paris and wishing to continue to work on the Pact texts based on the “consensus” method, the Czech Presidency is already aiming, at the Home Affairs Council of 8 and 9 December, for political agreements confirming the results of the negotiations with the European Parliament on the ‘screening’ of migrants, Eurodac, as well as on the reform of the Schengen Borders Code in the area of ‘Home Affairs’.
On the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ and Schengen, Prague will indeed try to give life to the mandates just given by the EU Council (see EUROPE 12969/1, 12969/2), but will also depend to a large extent on the pace of progress of the European Parliament, which has still not defined its position on these three matters.
The Czech Presidency also aims, by the end of the year, according to a provisional work programme, to obtain a partial general approach on the new regulation on the removal of child pornography from the Internet (see EUROPE 12976/10), which was not welcomed by the German government, or, failing that, to have a progress report adopted.
Its work programme also includes the regulation on the instrumentalisation of migration, which was presented in December together with the targeted revision of the Schengen Borders Code. The proposal, which is different from the one concerning measures based on Article 78.3 of the Treaty for Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, did not progress under the French Presidency. In this area Prague is aiming for a general approach or, failing that, a progress report.
The Czech Republic also hopes to make progress on the enlargement of Schengen to include Croatia, which could become a member on 1 January 2023, as well as Bulgaria and Romania. Its provisional agenda envisages a decision on this issue at the December Ministerial Conference. “We will do everything that can be done, we will speed up, but there is a procedure and a certain number of steps” to be respected, said Czech Ambassador Edita Hrda on Monday 4 July, with Bulgaria and Romania still to be assessed.
Other issues on the Presidency’s agenda include the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on security, for example on arms trafficking, the new mandate of the European Drugs Agency, the fight against terrorism and further work on strengthening police cooperation. The Presidency will also have to guide the work on the interoperability of European information systems, which should become a reality in 2023.
Link to the programme: https://aeur.eu/f/2h5
Link to the calendar: https://aeur.eu/f/2gv (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Camille-Cerise Gessant)