Brussels, 26/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The session of the Justice/Home Affairs Council, to be held in Brussels this Tursday, chaired by French Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou and the Minister for Home Affairs, no longer Jean-Pierre Chevenement, but Daniel Vaillant, will be a full one. Over lunch, the ministers and Commissioner Antonio Vitorino will discuss the preparations for the Jumbo JHA-EcoFin Council", which, in Luxembourg on 17 October, will deal with the fight against financial crime and, in particular, money laundering (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.9). the morning's work will be devote to issues relating to the ministers for home affairs, and in the afternoon, those managed by the justice colleagues. Here is an overview of the agenda of the home affairs ministers (tomorrow, EUROPE will return to topics to be broached by the ministers of justice).
- European Fund for Refugees. The Council will strive to find a consensus on two as yet unresolved issues. The Commission's proposal aimed at introducing for five years, from 1 January last, a Fund with a budget of 216 million euro so as to support actions financed by Member States regarding the reception, integration and voluntary repatriation of refugees and other displaced persons; this Fund should also support the emergency measures required in case of a sudden and massive inflow of refugees or displaced persons, the joint action decided in 1999 during the Kosovo crisis thereby being institutionalized. The Presidency's goal is to reach a compromise that would open the way to the decision's formal adoption, which would allow for the release of the credits earmarked for actions to be financed by the Fund in the framework of the budgetary exercise 2000. The questions to resolve concern: a) the proportion of the total amount of the Fund (Article 1) to allocate to emergency measures (Article 5). EUROPE has reason to believe the reservations on the part of Germany and Spain could be lifted through a declaration in the minutes providing for other financial support measures for emergency actions in the framework of the future Directive on temporary protection; b) the key-distribution of resources between Member States (Article 9). The formula most support is to guarantee each Member State a digressive amount during the five years of the Fund's validity; Austria, have, however, proposed a more detailed formula aimed at also taking into account the number of refugees taken in by each Member state as a proportion of its population. It seems that this delegation may be be satisfied with a declaration to the minutes by which the Council would try to resume negotiations in view of reaching a fair distribution of resources;
- Visa obligation and exemption for nationals of third countries. Without the Presidency placing too much hope in reaching an agreement this time, the Council will examine the Draft Regulation aimed at setting a list of thirsd States whose nationals will be submitted to the obligation of a visa to cross the EU's external borders, and a second, positive, list (States without visa obligations). Three groups of countries raise problems: a) Romania, Bulgaria and, possibly, Slovakia. The first two, says the Commission should be on the positive list, and Denmark has called for Slovakia to be added. Several Member States are hesitating (contrary to the EP) regarding Romania. To overcome the difficulty (how to justify a refusal when it is a question of a country candidate for accession), the Benelux has proposed a formula by which the aforementioned countries would be on the positive list, but the abolition of the visa obligation concerning their nationals would be postponed; b) Hong Kong and Macao which, according to the Commission, should also be on the positive list. Having noticed a certain amount of reluctance, the Commission has suggested that the visa exemption only apply to passports issued by these special administrative regions of China. Another possibility would be to offer this possibility in exchange for a readmission agreement; c) Colombia. Spain refuses - alone - that this country should be on the negative list, hoping that it could benefit from the formula envisaged for Romania and Bulgaria.
- Social standards in asylum procedures. Antonio Vitorino will present the draft directive that the Commission proposed on 20 September relating to the procedure for granting and withdrawing the status of refugees in Member States.
- Conditions for receiving asylum-seekers. The Council will have a policy debate on the subject on the basis of a draft Framework-Decision put forward by the French Presidency, which hopes to arrive at common guidelines by the end of the year so that the Commission can prepare a draft directive. The debate will focus on three political issues: 1) level of harmonisation to attain, it being a question of financial and material aid to provide asylum-seekers (so as to avoid attractive differences between Member States)?; 2) conditions of movement for asylum-seekers; 3) access to work (while avoiding submissions for asylum for economic reasons alone).
