Dublin, 08/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - Speaking on the subject of justice and home affairs (JHA), the Irish minister of justice, Michael McDowell, stressed to journalists on Wednesday that the Irish presidency would "do everything it can" to get the important deadlines due to expire this year, respected. These are:
1) 1 May 2004 - the date set out in the Treaty of Amsterdam for carrying our a certain number of objectives, notably on asylum policy. In this area, the presidency will be focusing on the adoption of the directive on the definition and status of third country nationals as refugees, as well as the directive on minimum rules to respect in national procedures on the granting and withdrawal of refugee status. Mr McDowell stressed that, "We are aware that these two directives constitute the final parts that were needed in order to respect the mandate of the treaty of Amsterdam in the area of asylum and we'll do everything to achieve this". The risk of missing the 1 May deadline is "real" and "serious", said the minister who also announced that he was going to visit all Member States over the next few weeks (which he had not previously mentioned) which still have some problems with some aspects of the directive;
2) the deadline at the end of the year for the implementation of the Tampere programme (decided on at the October 1999 summit). The suggestion made by the Italian presidency for establishing a sort of European quota for legal immigration "appears at first glance to be a good idea" declared the minister who also acknowledged that this delicate and complex issue needed to be treated very carefully. The presidency and Council will be awaiting the results of the study commissioned on this subject before deciding on what needs to be done in a follow-up.
The continuation of the preparation of the Schengen Information System (SIS II) also figures in the presidency's work programme and Mr McDowell considered that the system should become operational in 2007 also some technical, legal and managerial problems appeared to be making the work more difficult than planned.
Mr McDowell also reiterated the Irish position in the framework of the IGC on the subject of decision making on JHA issues: the Irish government is prepared to abandon unanimity on decisions regarding asylum and immigration but not for question concerning law and order or criminal law, which according to Dublin are subject to subsidiarity.