Brussels, 14/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - In addition to the matters covered in our bulletins (EUROPE 9444 and 9445), the Justice and Home Affairs Council this week adopted an impressive series of conclusions on immigration, combating crime and terrorism, Europol, and others.
Immigration: After agreeing on the draft regulation setting up Rapid Border Intervention Teams (RABIT) (see EUROPE 9411), ministers adopted various conclusions on enlargement and strengthening the global approach on the issue of migration, assessing progress made in negotiations on readmission with third countries, strengthening cooperation on returns and strengthening integration policies in the EU, improving immigration and asylum statistics, a common asylum system and the situation of refugees in Iraq and neighbouring regions.
Crime and terrorism: The Council adopted recommendations on sharing information about abductions carried out by terrorists and a standard procedure for cross-border investigations into supply channels for seized or recovered crime-related firearms. Ministers then adopted
conclusions on limiting terrorists' and criminals' access to arms and explosives, cooperation in combating the use of the internet for terrorist purposes (“Check the Web”), EU priorities in combating organised crime and the state of preparedness for decontamination of the victims of CBRN incidents. The Council agreed on a Council resolution on strengthening cooperation in fighting cross-border serious crime, through simplifying the use of covert investigations.
Europol: Ministers adopted conclusions on the involvement of Europol in joint investigation teams, police and Europol access to the Eurodac system and the replacement of the Europol Convention by a Council decision (see EUROPE 9444). Finally, there were conclusions on strengthening the coordination capability of the monitoring and information centre as part of the Community civil protection mechanism, and the 2006 evaluation of the implementation of the EU drugs action plan (2005-2008). All the Council conclusions of 12 and 13 June are available at http: //http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/jha/94682.pdf (bc)