Brussels, 18/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - The extraordinary meeting of the EU's Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in Brussels on Thursday will exclusively focus on the fight against terrorism. Ministers are expected above all to reiterate the European Union's commitment to do all in its power to help the United States arrest and judge those responsible for the terrorist attacks on 11 September. The Council will also decide to assess and consolidate the existing instruments (Europol, the different ways in which magistrates, the police and surveillance services could cooperate, etc) and will launch new initiatives (Commission proposals on terrorism and a European arrest warrant, confirmation that Eurojust will be created, etc) in order to coordinate the investigations that are under way and generally increase cooperation with in the European Union itself and between the EU and its partners (the United States and candidate countries) in fighting terrorism. Before the Council, the EU's Permanent Representatives are expected to review in greater depth (on Wednesday) the draft conclusions of the Belgian Presidency of the Council, which were generally welcomed on first reading at a technical meeting on Tuesday.
After a first reading of the proposals that the European Commission will adopt the day before concerning the definition of terrorism and a minimum set of sanctions, and also on the creation of a European arrest warrant (see below), the Presidency is expected to invite its partners to commit themselves to reviewing and then adopting the two proposals as soon as possible. Still on the subject of judicial cooperation, diplomatic sources suggest that the Presidency will propose that the Commission provide the Council with proposals to facilitate the investigations and facilitate repression in cases where modern technology has been used. The Presidency is also expected, according to the same sources, to want the Council to confirm its pledge to create the Eurojust judicial cooperation unit in December so that it can be up and running by the beginning of 2002. The provisional Eurojust unit (pro-Eurojust) will be asked to help coordinate the investigations currently under way by very rapidly getting the judges together who are responsible for fighting against terrorism. The Council will be provided with a joint Belgian/Spanish/Portuguese proposal to immediately set up a joint anti-terrorist investigation team of magistrates and police officers. All Member States will be asked, where they have not yet done so, to provide juridical means for fighting the funding of terrorist activities. The Council may also decide to extend to terrorist acts the decision on freezing assets and on proof (which is expected to be adopted at the December meeting).
The Presidency also wants the EU to pledge to use Europol more efficiently by ensuring that all useful information is rapidly supplied to it. Another diplomatic source indicated that a number of Member States often fail to supply Europol with information (see the comments by the Mr Pirker MEP on p.10 of yesterday's Europe). Europol might be encouraged to extend its anti-terrorist unit for at least six months. A meeting of Member States' surveillance services might also be considered. Europol will be requested to list all the police measures taken by the Member States (checking the EU's external borders, airport checks, monitoring large motorway routes, etc). The Presidency will call on Member States to make greater use of the Schengen information system and redouble security when issuing identity documents and visas (by scrupulously observing the set procedures, sifting out false documents, etc).
Presidency to propose judicial cooperation agreement with the United States
The Presidency is also highly likely to propose strengthening cooperation with the United States. Apart from the emergency Europol/United States mechanism for sending personal information and data, there is not at the moment any formal agreement between the United States and the EU for such cooperation. The Presidency is expected to propose to accelerate the negotiations between Europol and the United States, aware that this raises the issue of protecting data since standards differ on either side of the Atlantic. A judicial cooperation agreement between the EU and the United States will also be proposed, on the basis of Article 38, to supplement the existing bilateral agreements.
Ministers will fill in their candidate country counterparts on their decisions at a meeting on the margins of the "normal" JHA Council on 27/28 September. Some countries are talking about "associating" the candidate countries with the fight against terrorism.