Brussels, 07/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs will have an informal meeting this Thursday 8 and Friday 9 February in Stockholm, under the Presidency of Thomas Bodstrom (Justice) and Maj-Inger Klingvall (Migration and Political Asylum), in the presence of European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino and the new United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubber. The speeches cover the implementation of the conclusions from the Tampere European Council (October 1999), the establishment of a common asylum policy, the fight against the trafficking of human beings, and the mutual recognition of decision in civil and commercial matters.
The works will unfold as follows:
Implementation of conclusions adopted in Tampere: the Ministers will have to answer two questions from the Swedish Presidency: 1) Does the action undertaken until now reflect the priorities formulate in Tampere?; 2) Are the working rhythms and methods in accordance with our expectations? The Presidency will also ask the Ministers to signal the fields that should be most emphasised and make suggestions over the way in which the JHA Council can be improved.
Cooperation with candidate countries in terms of justice and home affairs: the Presidency will provide information on this issue, as well as on the meeting with the EU accession candidate countries, which will take place on 16 March at Ministerial level, on the sidelines of the JHA Council.
Common asylum system: on the basis if a document prepared by the Presidency, the EU 15 will be able to concentrate their talks on the aims they will have in view of the harmonisation of these system and over the type of answers to bring to people who need a form of subsidised protection compared to the protection given to refugees by international conventions. The High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubber will talk on this issue with the Ministers. The debate will mainly focus on the issue of the sharing of the burden of the influx of refugees, should there be a redistribution of quotas between the various Member States in order to ensure the balance welcome to people seeking international protection? This question has already been posed by Germany for a long-time. Other countries such as Spain and Ireland, which did not feel concerned by this issue, have become so. Ireland, for example, has the highest EU a per inhabitant reception rate for asylum seekers.
Fight against trafficking in human beings: namely the trafficking of human beings, women and children aimed for sexual or other exploitation. The Presidency will present its underlying view of a European strategy allowing for effective police and judicial cooperation against this phenomenon. According to the UN, 9 million people live in conditions close to slavery following the trafficking of human beings. According to other estimates, more than 1 million people are, each year, "sold" throughout the world, to be exploited in different ways, notably sexually, and 500,000 women, mainly from the countries of Eastern Europe, arrive in the EU as "forced prostitutes". In this context, the Ministers will be invited to debate a package of legislative measures presented by the Commission on 21 December 2000 to fight against such an explosion and to propose a timetable for its adoption.
Mutual recognition of decision in civil and commercial matters: the EU 15 will discuss the programme for the implementation of the recognition of these decisions, adopted last November, on the basis of two question put forward by the Presidency: 1) which is the most appropriate manner to continue the works?: the Presidency proposes to proceed in stages, starting with a pilot project; 2) with which project to start?: the Presidency recalls that the Commission is working at this time on the issue of minor litigations, but that this issue requires considerable preparatory work." Thus the Presidency proposes to carry out a pilot project on the issue of unchallenged claims. The Ministers will be invited to, when raising this possible pilot project as the recognition of general judgement, discuss security mechanisms necessary to completely remove the exequatur procedure and move towards "the free movement of judgments in civil and commercial matters."