Brussels, 14/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - During a debate with MEPs on the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee on Thursday, Commissioner Franco Frattini unveiled several measures to be adopted by the Commission over the next few months. Frattini started off by explaining that he was planning to establish an assessment system for existing legislation, as proposed on 28 June in a report on applying The Hague Strategy (see EUROPE 9221) in order to assess Member States' performance. He said the time had come to see how each Member State was applying existing measures and whether there were any backlogs. He stressed the importance of the European Commission's proposal on improving decision-making under the third pillar by using bridging clauses. In response to a question from Maria Berger (PES, Austria) on countries like Germany which have problems to overcome, Frattini said 'emergency 'break' measures could be used at the European Council (a measure from the draft constitutional treaty) to give one or more Member States the discretionary power to challenge the bridging clause if they feel their national interests risk being jeopardised.
Immigration. Immigration often has 'headline-grabbing effects' explained Manuel Ortega Medina (PES, Spain), and Commissioner Frattini said he would be publishing the European Commission's priorities on 19 July in terms of stemming illegal immigration, including a measure to establish an emergency team of experts to patrol EU coastlines. Franco Frattini said thirteen Member States had pooled two aircraft and four boats to patrol the sea off the Canary Islands, Senegal, Mauritania and Cape Verde. The EU Frontier Agency (Frontex) will manage the patrol operations. Short-term visas and lists of safe countries are other aspects of the package to be unveiled on Wednesday. In the longer term, new legal EU immigration measures are expected to be introduced.
Counter-terrorism. In addition to the new measures already announced by the European Commission on 6 July (see EUROPE 9227), the Commissioner stressed the need for the EU to have new legislation to counter cybercrime, an EU plan to protect critical infrastructure and measures to beef up cooperation between the public and private sectors. He said the EU counter-terror action plan would consider setting up an EU network of investigation authorities to ensure better circulation of information without infringing on Europol's work. Other prevention and coordination measures would also be considered for potential multiple bombings like in Bombay, India, this month. Echoing the concerns of Italian MEP Carlo CASINI (EPP-ED) on the proliferation of telephone tapping, Frattini said a framework decision on data protection under the third pillar was required and this was still under on the negotiating table. The Commission is planning to publish a report on more harmonious use of existing legislation.
Civil justice. The Commission will be unveiling a draft regulation on Monday 17 July on divorce, filling gaps in the Brussels II Regulation, and a Green Paper on various systems of marriage and the impact on inheritance of other types of partnership (see EUROPE 9179). It is expected to introduce several proposals in line with the Green Paper on succession and wills, which will be closely monitored by the President of the Legal Affairs Committee, Giuseppe Gargani (EPP-ED, Italy). In terms of European contract law, Frattini and the EU Health and Consumer Projection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou are in the final stages of agreeing on common definitions. Frattini said they were prepared to play a bigger role than simply protecting consumer rights. Frattini said he backed scrapping the 'exequatur' (certificate of enforceability) from all areas of civilian law. On Rome II, Frattini reassured Diana Wallis (ALDE, UK) that the Commission had virtually the same view as the EP (that the review of the regulation should be watered down).
Criminal justice. The Commissioner outlined a series of criminal justice measures, like a Green Paper on the application of judicial rulings, legislation on exchange of information about criminal records, an EU witness protection plan and reflection on the common collection of evidence based on mutual recognition.