Brussels, 01/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - EU25 justice and home ministers meeting in Brussels during the JHA Council on 4 and 5 December are expected to give their go-ahead to the creation of an EU Agency on fundamental rights (1st pillar) in Vienna, and to announce the possible enlargement of the Schengen Area to the new Member States plus Switzerland by early 2008.
European Agency for Fundamental Rights: After three years of discussions, European justice ministers should normally agree, on Monday, on the creation of an Agency for Fundamental Rights in the EU. In June this year, the European Council had set the date of 1 January 2007 for establishment of the agency. Nonetheless, only the rules of procedure governing the Community chapter (1st pillar) of the future agency will be adopted. The ministers were unable to agree on a second rule of procedure that would have allowed the agency to also deal with the justice and police aspects of Union policies (3rd pillar). Ministers will fall back on the adoption of a declaration in which there will be a rendezvous clause fixing 31 December 2006 as the deadline for enlargement of the agency's powers. The European Parliament will give a favourable opinion during December's plenary.
Criminal law: Ministers will approve without discussion a proposal for a framework decision to ensure that national jurisdictions will take into account condemnations pronounced in the other Member States, granting them the same effect as national decisions at each stage of the procedure. This instrument of mutual recognition should prove useful in the case of repeated offences. An agreement should be reached on facilitating the transfer of detainees between Member States. The proposal aims to ensure better reinsertion of prisoners in the country where they legally reside. Only three countries are blocking the initiative: Poland, Ireland and the Netherlands. In general, they consider they do not have sufficient prison capacity to take back all their nationals imprisoned abroad. No agreement is, on the other hand, expected on the 2004 proposal for a framework decision relating to common minimum standards on criminal procedural guarantees, mainly given the refusal of countries such as the United Kingdom that categorically refuse to refusing categorically to commit to European harmonisation of criminal procedures. Ministers will also examine the state of progress on data protection in the third pillar.
Enlargement of the Schengen area: On Tuesday, Member States are expected to fall into line behind the Finnish Presidency's draft timetable for an enlargement of the Schengen area at the start of 2008. The borders were initially expected to be opened in October 2007, but, because of delays in the implementation of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II), enlargement will not be possible with this timetable (see EUROPE 9279). States will therefore have to accept the transitional solution, “SIS I for all”, which will allow, given technical adjustments and an additional cost of €5 million, to link the new Member states to the current Schengen information system at the end of 2007. It will only be after the test period and the assessment of the systems in each Member State that “SIS I for all” will become operational, that is likely to be at the start of 2008.
Immigration: The European Commission will present two communications which it published on Thursday (see EUROPE 9280). Thereafter there will be a sharing of points of view, which will allow the Southern European countries to highlight the urgency of the need to find joint solutions in the face of migratory pressures.
The Finnish Presidency will report on the state of progress of the Hague Programme. Ministers are likely to discuss the bridging clause which will break the deadlock. There will agreement on the change of status of Europol. There is also likely to be an agreement on the financial instrument on civil protection. The Commission will speak about the issue of violence in video games (see EUROPE 9306). The EU anti-terrorist coordinator will review progress made in combating terrorism. Finally, JHA external policy will be examined. (bc)