On Wednesday 21 June in Stockholm, the European Union and the United States held their first six-monthly meeting on Justice and Home Affairs and adopted a joint declaration. The last meeting took place in December.
Among the subjects of common concern, the various representatives of the EU – the Swedish Minister for Justice, Gunnar Strömmer, and the Commissioners for Home Affairs and Justice, Ylva Johansson and Didier Reynders – and those of the United States – the Attorney General, Merrick Garland, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas – mentioned in particular the war in Ukraine and the need to enforce sanctions, violent extremism, particularly online, the fight against organised crime and drugs, but also the withdrawal of child sexual abuse material online, and legal access for police and judicial authorities to data, particularly telecommunications data, to conduct investigations.
This last theme is “very dear to the Swedish Presidency” of the Council of the EU, said the Minister, and a specific working group at Member State level was set up in February (EUROPE 13108/6).
With regard to Ukraine, the two parties discussed their intention to deepen their cooperation to help the country with its judicial reforms and the strengthening of the rule of law.
They also expressed their determination to prosecute those responsible for international crimes committed in Ukraine and welcomed the steps taken, such as the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the US Department of Justice and the prosecuting authorities (the national members of the joint investigation team on Ukraine, set up with the support of Eurojust – see EUROPE 13109/2) and the International Centre for the Prosecution of Crimes of Aggression against Ukraine (see EUROPE 13135/12), which will be supported by the United States.
They also welcomed the creation within the Council of Europe of a register of damage suffered by Ukraine (see EUROPE 13205/18) and reaffirmed their commitment to the full implementation of sanctions, including the freezing and seizure of assets linked to criminal activities. They also stressed the importance of cooperation with other international partners to avoid any loopholes in the application of sanctions.
On another subject, the two parties reaffirmed their commitment to stepping up cooperation in the fight against environmental crime.
With regard to Home Affairs, European Commissioner Ylva Johansson also indicated at a press conference that visa reciprocity had been addressed, with further progress being made to enable Romania, Cyprus and Bulgaria to join the US ‘Visa Waiver Program’ for visa-free travel to the USA.
The US and EU also discussed the US Enhanced Border Security Partnership and the value of bilateral information sharing under this programme. They expressed “their intention to discuss future cooperation at EU level”. Some elected representatives have recently denounced the blackmail carried out via this data exchange programme in relation to the same ‘Visa Waiver Program’ (see EUROPE 13161/3).
The declaration goes on to say that the two sides “reiterated their commitment to address security threats stemming from the war, including cooperation with Ukraine to reinforce the collective capacities to prevent trafficking of firearms, trafficking in human beings, and critical infrastructure protection”.
The United States and the EU have also “reaffirmed the importance of effective information sharing to combat terrorism. To that end, they plan to continue and build upon the existing pilot project between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Europol addressing security risks associated with terrorist travel”.
Link to the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/7ma (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Nithya Paquiry)