Brussels, 28/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Justice and Home Affairs Ministers of the Fifteen opened their Council on 28 February on a very general and consensual debate on international cooperation in the fight against organised crime. Just thirty persons, of whom two-thirds were journalists, had come to hear these public presentations. As summarised by the joint-president-in-office of the Council, Spanish Justice Minister Angel Acebes, the ministers had all agreed in saying that the sectoral priorities international cooperation against organised crime must be "terrorism, money laundering, drugs trafficking and the trade in human beings", the regional priorities "candidate countries, Russia, Ukraine, the Mediterranean rim countries, the United States, Canada and the Balkans", and the instruments "judicial cooperation agreements based on Article 38 of the Treaty, common positions, Europol, Eurojust and border police" - all this, of course, in the "aim of really operational cooperation". The Presidency did not draw any further conclusions to the debate, before going on to the other points on the Council agenda.
All participants insisted on the fact that the European Union should above all ensure that its common positions and agreements with third countries are followed up with concrete implementation. Furthermore, the EU must above all have a sound common basis before turning to the exterior, said several participants. Austria considers the "EU cannot be credible towards the exterior unless there is consistency between Member States". Belgian national Marc Verwilghen went further saying that "harmonisation is necessary - the EU must appear as an interlocutor that has an area dealing with penal matters". One of the few practical points of these presentations was the announcement by Portuguese Justice Minister Antonio Costa that his country was preparing an initiative for creating a register of persons found guilty of certain kinds of offences, such as drugs trafficking, in order to ensure that the person found guilty in one EU State is considered as a reoffender if found guilty of the same kind of offence in another Member State. The under-Secretary of State at the British Ministry of the Interior, Angela Eagle, specified that her country agreed with France, the Netherlands and Belgium for the creation of common investigating teams that could act rapidly mainly on chemical weapons issues, but which could also work on the trafficking of cocaine. Dutch Justice Minister Benk Korthals called for Europol to be able to participate in such teams as soon as possible. Italian Interior Minister Claudio Scajola, who also took a stance in favour of creating joint investigating teams, recalled that his country was working on a pilot project for a European border police. The Finnish Minister insisted on cooperation with the United States and Russia. Greece hopes to strengthen the agreements with countries from whence crime comes - for drugs, for example. European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino recalled that the Phare programmes (for candidate countries) and the Tacis (ex-USSR) and CARDS (Balkans) programmes, as well as the action plan with Russia comprise sections on justice and home affairs. He called for the EU to present a JHA programme to the Mediterranean countries on the occasion of the ministerial Euromed Conference to be held in April. Cooperation with the United States and the work within the international bodies are also of very great importance for all participants.