Brussels, 19/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Spanish Presidency does not wish to reach Washington empty-handed for the EU/US Summit on 2 May. It will therefore do everything it can so that the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 25 and 26 April adopt the negotiating brief for a judicial cooperation agreement in criminal matters. The Presidency "believes this is possible", Spanish Permanent Representative, Javier Conde, told the press on Friday. But we are not there yet. The Fifteen have still to reach an agreement on their position on the extradition of nationals, the processing of personal data and the death penalty. The EU15 Permanent Representatives made "progress" on the extradition of nationals, but the question "has not yet been resolved", Javier Conde said. The Presidency even envisages that each State should keep its own system but one could therefore wonder what the added value of an EU/USA agreement would be, all the more as the United States is insisting on this point. The Fifteen must also decide whether extradition can be granted on the condition that the death penalty is not applied or not even pronounced. The negotiating brief will give "points of reference for the Presidency when conducting negotiations, assisted by the European Commission, in constant contact with the Member State delegations", stressed Mr Conde. He believes that the agreement will allow "procedures to be accelerated, and questions simplified, but will not do away with bilateral agreements" between the Member States and the United States (see EUROPE of 17 April, p.9 for more detail on the draft mandate).
The proposal of mandate should be on the agenda of Friday's Council, like all the other points relating to judicial cooperation. Asylum and immigration will be discussed on Thursday. Thursday afternoon, the ministers will meet their Russian counterparts. The Council will first tackle the following issues:
Minimum conditions for hosting asylum seekers: The Presidency hopes to reach a political agreement on this proposal of directive, an agreement that would be confirmed after the European Parliament and two national parliaments have given their opinion. The meeting of EU15 Permanent Representatives, on Thursday, hardly allowed things to move forward.
Illegal immigration by sea: The Council is to adopt conclusions on strengthening controls, as well as on partnerships with the countries from which illegal immigrants come. This theme was covered at the General Affairs Council on 15 April, at Italy's request (EUROPE of 16 April, p.9).
ARGO action programme for cooperation on asylum matters, immigration, visas and borders: The Council is expected to soon reach an agreement on this programme, on the operation for assessing illegal immigration at airports (EUROPE of 12 April, p.10) and on the meeting of the Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum (Scifa), devoted to EU external border control. Spain will also brief its partners on its meeting of 12 April with the United States regarding asylum and immigration cooperation.
Meeting with Russia: Points on the agenda will include: the trade in human beings, money laundering, drugs trafficking, immigration, border control, the restitution of stolen vehicles found in Russia, the situation in Kaliningrad, and administrative and judicial reforms in Russia. Neither party are expected to adopt conclusions. Russia is above all to present its position on the draft cooperation agreement forwarded to it by Europol, as well as on the negotiation of a re-entry agreement with the Community.
Europol participation in joint inquiries and the possibility for Europol to call on the States to launch inquiries: The Council has sought to reach consensus on both these points, although the reservation expressed by the Netherlands and Denmark has not yet been waived (EUROPE of 18 April, p.10). On the other hand, it will not, or almost not, discuss the other part of the Belgian-Spanish proposal, namely simplification of the method for amending the Europol Convention. Once the European Parliament has given its opinion on this proposal, which should be done in July, the part on joint inquiries should be the subject of a separate Protocol, the Presidency states. In Presidency circles, it is considered that the debate on simplification will perhaps not even be settled before the end of the Danish Presidency. "As everyone was in agreement that the method for amending the Europol Convention should be changed, we felt it would be easy, but things became complicated", said Mr Conde. Discussions mainly come up against the role of the national parliaments, which would no longer be consulted for each modification if the Convention were transformed by Council decision. The Europol Convention, which for now requires a long period of ratification for each change, "belongs to the old generation of judicial and police cooperation instruments", noted the ambassador.
Amending the punishment harmonisation method. The Council is expected to agree on loosening the harmonisation method for penal sanctions (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.10). Javier Conde stressed importance of an agreement in this area.
Draft framework decision on combating sexual exploitation of children and child pornography. Coreper on Thursday was unable to solve the remaining hitches concerning how child pornography is defined and possible exemptions (yesterday's EUROPE, p.10). The EU still needs to discuss the scale of punishment based on the new punishment harmonisation method. The Presidency thinks it is "possible" that the Council will reach political agreement. Javier Conde pointed out the "philosophical" problem at issue between the majority of Member States that want punishment to be harmonised, and the minority that don't. France only wants harmonisation for cross-border crime. Conde pointed out that the Council has been discussing the issue for nearly two years now.
Security at football matches. According to the Presidency, the Council should be able to approve the proposal to appoint a national football information point in each Member State to collect and share information. Coreper will look at the text on Wednesday. The information points would provide personal information about "dangerous" football fans and analyses of clubs and its national team. This exchange of information will be covered under existing national and international legislation.
Condemning racism and xenophobia. On France's initiative, the Council is expected to issue a declaration condemning recent racist and xenophobic attacks in the EU, setting out the basic principles underlying the European Union and calling on the European Commission to organised a European education week on the issue.
Combating drugs. The Council is expected to adopt four recommendations (see EUROPE of 18 April, p.10).
Network to combat genocide and war crimes. Without further debate, the Council will adopt a simplified version of the Dutch proposal to create a European network of contact points for tracking down people responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes (see EURO PE of 12 April, p.10). Many Member States doubt the utility of the initiative.
The European list of terrorist organisations will not be on the JHA Council agenda, noted the diplomat. It will be examined by Coreper again on 29 April (see p.10 of yesterday's EUROPE).