Brussels, 06/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The EU's Justice and Home Affairs Ministers will be meeting in Copenhagen on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 September for their first informal meeting under the Danish Presidency. Friday's discussions will focus on asylum and immigration issues, while Saturday will focus on the fight against terrorism and drugs. As we reported at the beginning of August, US Attorney General John Ashcroft (responsible for justice and home affairs in the United States) will be attending the meeting on Saturday. The Council is expected to finish on Saturday afternoon, following a dinner attended by John Ashcroft. The Council will be chaired by Danish Internal Affairs and Justice Ministers, Bertel Haarder and Lene Espersen. The Presidency has provided the Ministers with a series of questions to pave the way for their discussions. Since this will be an informal meeting, they will not be passing any decisions. The formal Justice and Home Affairs Councils will be held on 14/15 October, 28/29 November and 20 December (see Europe of 26 August).
Integration. A few days ahead of the informal Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Commission are organising a conference on integration (on 9/10 September). Civil society organisations will be attending, alongside European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino and Danish Minister Bertel Haarder. At the Council in Copenhagen, Ministers will discuss immigrant rights and ways of promoting their integration into the labour market. The Presidency is expected to suggest that Ministers work together in this connection, sharing their experiences.
Return policy and deportation: E15 Ministers of the Interior will hold an initial political discussion on the Green Book on a European policy of return policy, presented last April by the Commission (see EUROPE 12 April). The Presidency will be asking them what they expect from such a programme: exchanges of information, contact point network, common criteria for determining who should be expelled, indeed, a Community financial instrument? The Commission is expected to present a Communication at the beginning of October with a proposal for an action plan. Member States are determined to approve the action plan by the end of the year. The Commission will then submit exact legislative proposals. The Commission will be organising a hearing on the subject (EUROPE 15/16 and 20 July).
Status of refugees: on the basis of the European Commission proposal on the status of refugees, Member States will debate the difficult question of what defines a "refugee" and examine the consequences of the important disparities in their legislation.
Schengen and enlargement: in order to prepare the meeting with Ministers from candidate countries in a backdrop to the JHA Council in October, the issue of their accession to Schengen will be on Friday's agenda. Practical participation in the Schengen system, namely the suppression of borders between member countries will not be done automatically on the date of accession. It will firstly be necessary that Member States consider that new Member States fulfil all the required conditions, notably with regard to security at its own borders. Ministers will be discussing this issue.
Fight against terrorism: Attorney General John Ashcroft will come to speak with the Fifteen on the fight against terrorism, nearly one year to the day after the Al Qaida attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The negotiation of an extradition and cooperation agreement in penal matters between the EU and the United States should be on the agenda of this meeting, as well as the negotiation of the agreement between Europol and the United States on the exchange of personal data, and the cooperation between Eurojust and the United States. Since the attacks on 11 September, Americans and Europeans have been working on strengthening their cooperation. The aim of the Fifteen is to make sufficient progress by the end of the year to be able to conclude as soon as possible in 2003 (see EUROPE of 2 August). A third negotiation session of the EU-US agreement was held this week, from 4 to 6 September in Washington. The negotiating brief for the agreement had been approved end April (see EUROPE of 27 April, and EUROPE of 4 September p.12, on the subject of Statewatch criticism).
Fight against drugs: Ministers are to examine the mid-term report of the 2000-2004 plan for EU action against drugs. This first discussion will fuel the report that the European Commission is to present in December to the European Council in Copenhagen. The Presidency has called on ministers to reflect on how they may review objectives by fixing priorities. Ministers are also to discuss the draft decision-framework on definition and penalties for drug trafficking. They had not managed to approve the text during the June Council as agreement could not be reached on the penalty that should be imposed for possession of small quantities of drugs. The Netherlands wants the Member States to be free to apply lighter sanctions than those set out in the text (EUROPE of 14 June). The Presidency hopes to reach a political agreement on this text in October.