Brussels, 25/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - After ten days devoted exclusively to stepping up the fight against terrorism, the EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers will be meeting on Thursday and Friday in Brussels under the presidency of the Belgian Justice and Home Affairs Ministers, Marc Verwilghen and Antoine Duquesne. They are to discuss questions that were on the Council table before the attacks on 11 September. Moving forward with the creation of Eurojust, adopting a resolution on seeking missing or sexually exploited children, and the question of family reunification will be the main points put to the Fifteen on Thursday morning. After a lunch when the ministers will discuss security at European meetings (at Italy's request), the Council will tackle the subject of refugees, and the method for amending the Europol Convention. On Friday morning, after discussions on proposals for a framework decision on combating the trade in human beings and the fight against sexual exploitation of children, the ministers will hold a public debate with the candidate countries on the fight against the trade in persons. This debate will be followed by a lunch with applicant countries, during which the EU ministers will, together with their partners, contemplate how to involve applicant countries in measures for combating terrorism.
Given the rather short deadlines set by the European Council for reaching an agreement on the proposals for a European arrest warrant and harmonisation of the fight against terrorism proposed by the European Commission (see EUROPE of 19 September, p.8, and the Special Edition of 22 September), as well as the list of meetings and reports decided by last week's special JHA Council (EUROPE of 21 September, p.8), the Belgian Presidency should also announce additional meetings of the Council's working group which coordinates justice and home affairs matters, the so-called Article 36 Committee. On the other hand, no additional Council is foreseen, Presidency sources assure, even if the agenda of the next Councils is to be adjusted to take new priorities into account.
Justice: moving forward in the creation of Eurojust and changes to Europol
1. Creation of Eurojust: Presidency hopes to obtain a political agreement on the first eight articles of the decision on the creation of this cooperation body for European magistrates and police officers in the fight against organised crime. The eight articles make up the "institutional framework" of Eurojust, explained Frans van Daele, Belgian Permanent Representative, who specified that most of the points had already been settled at the level of the Permanent Representatives. Questions that "will probably be settled by the Council" include the role of the European Commission. It would like to be permanently present at Eurojust work, while several Member States hope it will only take part in an ad hoc way, depending on the subjects covered, explained the Presidency. Ireland, which marks general reticence regarding the creation of Eurojust as a formal body, insists in particular that the role of the Commission should be well defined, it is explained by European sources. Other issues covered include the intervention by Eurojust for a fact that only concerns a Member State and the Community, the precise determination of Eurojust's scope, and the confirmation of the possibility for Eurojust to intervene on a question that would not be mentioned in its statutes. The other articles of the draft decision would be the subject of a first discussion in October. The aim set by the European Council of Tampere in 1999 and reaffirmed by the Belgian Presidency is to adopt the decision for creating Eurojust at the JHA Council in December, so that it will be operational early next year. We recall that a provisional unit of Eurojust has been operational since 1 March.
2. Modification of the Convention of the European Police Office, Europol. In order to prevent discussions on the main aspects of Europol reform from being blocked by less important points (the Member States have put forward 26 amending proposals), the Presidency hopes to gain the agreement of ministers on the designation of points to be settled as a priority: determination of the right of own initiative for launching inquiries; formation of joint inquiry teams; enlargement of the Europol mandate (terrorism, security of European meetings); improvement of labour records; relations with Eurojust; the Office's parliamentary, legal and administrative control; and simplification of the Convention's modification procedure.
3. Furthermore, the Council will hear two reports. The Netherlands will present an initiative with a view to creation by the Council of a network of contact points for prosecution of those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The United Kingdom will present the EU action plan on drugs. The Belgian Minister may inform his counterparts of the meeting that he held this weekend with his American counterpart on measures to combat terrorism, on behalf of the Presidency.
European asylum and immigration policies: family reunification
and refugee status the focus of ministers' concerns
In conformity with the priorities defined by the Belgian Presidency (see EUROPE of 9/10 July, p.18), Ministers will discuss on Thursday a Presidency compromise on family reunification and will hold a substantive debate on minimum norms for the granting and withdrawal of refugee status in Member States.
1. Proposal of directive on family reunification (European migration policy): As the ministers were unable to reach an agreement of principle on this issue during their meeting in May (see EUROPE of 30 May, p.7) as too many political elements were still to be resolved (see EUROPE of 7/8 May, p.17), the Presidency submitted a draft compromise for discussion with a view to a political agreement at the JHA Council on 6/7 December. The draft compromise: a) deals with the scope of the directive (Article 5), namely the question of the family members who are eligible for family reunification; b) identifies, in relation to the closeness of family ties, three different categories of family members able to benefit from the right to family reunification: spouse and children not yet of age (family nucleus), direct ascendants and children of age, and unmarried partners. As stressed by Ambassador Van Daele, "the Presidency proposes that this right to family reunification should be granted very rapidly to the family nucleus. This process is all the more difficult as the issue is subject to revision in the different Member States"; c) provides, on the basis of identification of these three categories of members, differentiation of rights granted and the terms and conditions for such rights.
2. Proposal of directive on minimum norms concerning procedure for granting and withdrawing refugee status in Member States (European asylum policy): the Ministers will hold a substantive debate on concrete questions of a political kind identified by the Presidency with a view to reaching guidelines and a political agreement during the session of the JHA Council of 6/7 December. The questions raised by the Presidency concern above all the criteria for admissibility of requests for asylum, the number of bodies (legal and administrative) called upon to play a role in the procedure, the time taken for processing the requests and the question of penalties should these times be exceeded, "qualitative" norms and the extent of application of measures provided for in the directive. Ambassador Van Daele recalled that, "so that the people who are truly in need of protection according to the Geneva Convention are recognised, the Commission proposal provides for minimum guarantees at procedural level - the right to a personal meeting, and the possibility of being placed in contact with organisations or persons who may provide legal assistance" (see EUROPE of 21 September 1999).
Missing or sexually exploited children, the fight against trade in human beings
In addition, the Council is expected to adopt, at the Presidency's initiative, a resolution on the contribution that civil society can make to seeking missing or sexually exploited children. This resolution invites: - Member States to promote cooperation between the relevant authorities and the actors of civil society in this kind of research; - the Commission to have a report established on the reality and magnitude of the phenomenon.
Furthermore, in conformity with its determination to intensify the fight against the trade in human beings, the Presidency is organising, on Friday from 10h30-13h00, a public debate with representatives of the candidate countries on this question. The ministers will then attempt to reach consensus on the point left outstanding at the Council in May on the draft framework decision on combating the trade in human beings, namely the definition of minimum penalties to be imposed on those guilty of such trafficking. EUROPE recalls that Austria was not able to accept the threshold of criminal sanctions proposed in the compromise text when there are aggravating circumstances (see EUROPE of 24 May, p.11).
The second proposal for a framework decision to be tabled concerns the fight against the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography (definitions and incriminations). In order to set out precise guidelines allowing for rapid finalisation of the instrument, the Council is expected to examine certain questions of principle, including that of knowing whether the decision framework must cover child pornography when it is a person who appears to be a child but who in reality is over 18 at the date of representation, or when it is not a real-life person involved (visual pornography). EUROPE recalls that these two proposals for a framework decision are joined to a comprehensive Commission communication (see EUROPE of 23 December 2000).