Brussels, 29/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - During its meeting on Tuesday, the EU Joint Committee with Iceland and Norway, jointly chaired by Thomas Bodstrom and Maj-Inger Klingvall, resulted in an unanimous agreement on the so-called "smuggler" directive (prosecution of aid to entry and unlawful stay - see EUROPE of 16 March, p.17), which comprises two instruments (two French initiatives). These are a framework decision on sanctions to be imposed on smugglers, and a proposal of directive that specifies the provision (definition of aid to entry and unlawful stay). The agreement was reached further to Austria lifting its reservation on the humanitarian clause (see EUROPE of 16/3). As far as the duration of the minimum penalty for the most serious acts are concerned, ministers agreed on a compromise of 8 years, except some Member States (Sweden and Netherlands in particular which keep a 6-year threshold).
The ministers also gave their political agreement on the proposal of directive relating to the responsibility of carriers taking third country nationals without the necessary documents to be admitted into a Member State. The amount of pecuniary sanctions was defined as follows: national legislation should provide either for: an amount of EUR 5000 for each person carried for the most serious cases, or a minimum of EUR 3000 per person, that is a standard rate of EUR 500,000 for large-scale traffic. It is the responsibility of each State to choose the sanction to be applied. Sweden and the United Kingdom, however, still have parliamentary reservation.
Finally, the ministers held a very brief debate on illegal immigration from the Balkans and Ms Klingvall reported on the Troika's visit to Belgrade and Sarajevo in March this year. They examined the protocol to the Convention 2000 on judicial cooperation in criminal matters (see other article).
During the final press conference, Commissioner Antonio Vitorino said he was very pleased with the agreement reached on the two French initiatives. "It is not a matter of harmonising all the penal laws of Member States but of harmonising minimum and maximum penalties in five areas chosen by the Member States. We have managed to do this to combat forgery of the euro, money laundering and now for smugglers. I trust that we shall soon come to drugs trafficking and the trade in human beings for economic and sexual purposes, which we did not manage to do yesterday", he said (see other article).