Brussels, 28/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The EU15 Justice and Home Affairs Ministers set themselves the aim of adopting, at the JHA Council on 25 April, the mandate that they will give to the Presidency for beginning negotiations with the United States for a judicial cooperation agreement. As we had announced earlier, the Member States did not wish to adopt a first draft mandate presented by the Presidency. The Fifteen hope to draft the mandate together, and carry out indepth preparatory work, between themselves and the United States, in order to ensure that negotiations are launched on a good basis in order to reach an agreement as quickly as possible, European sources explain. The Fifteen hope to reach, if possible, adoption of the mandate at the Council on 25 April, but main questions remain unanswered and it is not obvious that they will achieve this aim. The Member States that took the floor on this issue (mainly Germany, Italy, Belgium, Finland, Denmark and Greece) all insisted on the need to advance with caution, and to closely examine the added value that an agreement would bring between the European Union and the United States in relation to bilateral agreements signed between the Member States and the United States. From data protection to the precise wording of guarantees in relation to the death penalty, many points need settling before reaching a common European position. The issue will be broached at the next meeting of the group of experts of the Fifteen (Article 36 Committee), in the presence of American experts, before moving on to the level of Permanent Representatives to arrive, "if possible", therefore, at the next JHA Council on 25 April. The Fifteen agreed at the informal meeting of Saint Jacques de Compostelle on the three major outlines of the negotiating brief: one or two agreements on mutual legal assistance and extradition, a field of application relating to all organised crime (including terrorism), and strong clauses on human rights and the death penalty (see yesterday's EUROPE, that of 27 February, p.10, 23 February, p.8 and 16 February, p.8).