Brussels, 16/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 15 July, MEPs from the European Parliament's civil liberties committee debated the priorities of the French presidency of the Union for Justice, Immigration and Security. Ministers responsible for these issues also attended the debate.
Justice. The French minister of justice, Rachida Dati indicated that the “French presidency has set itself the objective of responding to the concerns of European citizens”. Dati listed the three objectives aimed for under the presidency: completion of the legislative work “before the 2009 elections”, initiate operational projects on security for citizens and “demonstrate our determination in preparing for the future”. The minister hoped that certain texts still subject to parliamentary reservations in some member states could still be adopted, including the framework decision on “in absentia” judgements. She also wanted all member states to rapidly implement the framework decision against racism and xenophobia, which is still the subject of a number of linguistic concerns. A source close to the presidency said that these misgivings are linked to interpretations of the text in different Union languages and could prove to be a sensitive issue. The minister's other priorities include the strengthening of Eurojust, which would become, “the point of unity in European judicial cooperation” (a political agreement is expected to be reached on the Eurojust decision at the JHA Council on 25 July), civil legal cooperation (with the draft regulation on food requirements that is expected to be finished by the end of the year) and the promotion of a European-level “kidnap alarm system” developed by France. The minister also announced that the presidency would work towards the interconnection of legal records by drawing up corresponding tables of infringements and sentences Europe wide. Ms Dati said that she wanted to, “develop a genuine European legal culture, through international exchanges of magistrate trainees” so that judges are less reticent about implementing a legal decision from another member state. Martine Roure MEP (France) appealed for a rapid adoption of the framework decision against racism and xenophobia at the Council. She also criticised the “a minima” agreement EU27 ministers reached on the framework decision on data protection in the third pillar (police and legal cooperation). “Its level of protection is not at the level ensured in the first pillar. Will the Council take the opinion of the Parliament into account?” Dati believes that data protection is a “sensitive subject”, even if this thematic is actually part of the minister of the interior's portfolio and not hers. The 1995 directive on data protection “only offers a partial framework” for data protection and therefore the draft decision on data protection “is a satisfactory first stage, even though we would have liked to go further”. Alexander Alvaro (ADLE, Germany) asked about how they would strengthen the procedural rights of the accused. Ms Dati would only say that to judge someone they needed “a wall of guarantees”. In reply to concerns expressed by Stavros Lambrinidis (PES, Greece) about the framework decision on criminalising incitement to terrorism on the internet, the minister declared that it was important to “frame this mode of expression”. Following a question by Sophie In't Veld (ADLE, Netherlands), the minister finally ruled out any commitment from France in the bilateral discussions with the US on visas.
Immigration: the French minister for Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Co-Development, Brice Hortefeux, elaborated a broad argument in favour of the immigration pact proposed by France and other EU countries and which is due to be adopted next October. Hortefeux declared that, “today the pact is a European proposal shared by all Union governments. With this pact we will take a major step towards European construction…the Irish 'no' vote expresses a concern about questions of identity. How do we defend our identity in a globalised world?” He added that, “our Europe has to be able to show that it is concerned about the daily issues of society. Immigration questions are part of these issues”. To illustrate the pact's goal, he also highlighted to MEPs some of his favourite leitmotivs, “this will mean a Europe that is neither a fortress nor a sieve…We want to organise legal immigration and disrupt illegal immigration” in an effort to construct a “balanced Europe”. In practice, this will mean the adoption of the “blue card”, “sanctions” and “on-stop-shop” directives. For the first two, the minister wants an agreement under the French presidency while efforts still have to be pursued for the latter. Other priority cases include the strengthening of the Frontex agency a “formidable shell that we need to gradually fill up”. Mr Hortefeux said that “everyone needs to respect its obligations (in terms of equipment), beginning with France. Hortefeux said that Asylum Europe had to be made a success, notably by creating an EU support office. He said that France had had much too ambitious aims at the start, agreeing that it had been premature to suggest creating an EU agency to manage asylum requests throughout the EU. Responding to Martine Roure on the question of development aid, Hortefeux said that all Member States had to deal with the issue and the co-development challenge had to be addressed by backing ex-pat communities and imagining financial products to stimulate them, using premiums, for example, to ensure that the money immigrants sent back home was used for investment rather than consumption. On the question of adoption of the Returns Directive, the minister told Roure that the draft directive represented progress, noting that being 'detained' was not the same as being 'arrested'. He admitted, however, that conditions had to be improved at detention centres. Claudio Fava (PES, Italy) asked how the concept of 'selective immigration' could be reconciled with 'shared immigration'. Brice Hortefeux responded that it had to be decided who could be accepted with dignity but this should not be done unilaterally. On the situation of the Roma in Italy, the minister said he would await the report to be published by the European Commission at the end of July 2008 before commenting on the matter. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (ALDE, the Netherlands) said she was quite concerned about the Blue Card Directive, to which the minister replied that he backed it. Agreement has to be reached on the criteria for issuing blue cards, he said, preferring the idea of 'median pay' to that of 'minimum pay'. Manfred Weber (EPP-ED, Germany) asked the minister about the plan to provide Frontex with a 'Southern' command and an 'Eastern' command. Hortefeux said Frontex's headquarters would remain in Warsaw but two sub-departments could be set up, one at a land border and one at a maritime border. In response to the concerns of EPP-ED MEP Simon Busuttil of Malta about Libya's failure to cooperate in tackling illegal immigration, Hortefeux was not able to hide his feelings that the situation was in great deadlock but he said a Libyan delegation would be travelling to Warsaw to consider whether to Libya might get involved in Frontex. Portuguese PES MEP Armando Franca asked the minister about the risk of a brain drain and Hortefeux answered that he preferred immigrants to return to their country of origin after a certain period of work (6 years for France under the 'skills and talents' card) and for mechanisms to be promoted to encourage returns. On Spain's initial demands that would change the pact's binding nature, Hortefeux pointed out that the Spanish government had strengthened rather than weakened the pact by introducing an obligation to accept the return of illegal immigrants. He also talked about the draft amendment to consular instructions, the Council's version of which recommends taking the fingerprints of children from the age of 6 onwards, but the EP recommends a higher age (from 12 years old onwards). Hortefeux assured rapporteur Sarah Ludford (ALDE, UK) that the Council's position was not final.
Security. French minister of the interior, Michele Alliot-Marie, who is totally at home with these issues, wanted to focus on tangible, visible action concerning the daily life of European citizens. When it comes to terrorism, the minister wants to tackle the use of new weapons like bacteriological, chemical and nuclear weapons that can be used to build 'dirty bombs'. She announced an initiative to combat cybercimre and child pornography through an EU platform for signalling illicit content. She also announced initiatives to tackle radicalisation and the recruitment of terrorists in prison, and measures to tackle drug-trafficking. She suggested that EU police stations should be established. Alliot-Marie called for biometric data to be used to make identity documents secure in the Schengen Area. Adina-Ioana Valean (ALDE, Romania) said that the thrust was towards ever more security. Where is freedom without security?, the minister responded. In terms of data protection, an issue Martine Roure is keen on, the minister admitted that the framework decision was not ideal but it was important that it was adopted. She called for the Council to work closely with the EP to improve the draft legislation. The minister told Sophie In't Veld that passenger name records (PNR) were useful for combatting terrorism and had been used to prevent two air attacks. The minister said proof of their utility would be provided to the MEP, who said she had been seeking such evidence for a long time. The minister promised that the second generation Schengen Information System would be operational in September 2009. Finnish ALDE MEP Henrik Lax said that Serbians and nationals of other countries should not be forced to request a visa to travel to the EU. The minister said that the issue was not in her powers, referring it to the immigration minister. French EPP-ED MEP Patrick Gaubert hoped there would be a security initiative for football stadiums, to which Alliot-Marie said she was working on this with the UEFA president Michel Platini. (B.C. transl R.H./fl)