Brussels, 23/07/2008 (Agence Europe) -Just two weeks after their informal meeting in Cannes, the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers of the EU will be meeting in Brussels on Thursday 24 and Friday 25 July, for a formal meeting of the "Justice and Home Affairs" Council. Among the key events of this Council are the adoption of a draft decision on Eurojust, and a debate on the possibility of launching the first ever reinforced cooperation in the field of family law.
Immigration/asylum. The ministers with responsibility for immigration issues will hold debates on Thursday morning on two directives on access and conditions for residence within the Union for highly qualified workers from third countries (the "blue card" directive) and on sanctions against people employing illegal third-country nationals (the "sanction" directive). The Presidency would like to obtain clear political orientations on both of these texts, which come under the approach defined in the draft European Pact on Immigration and Asylum. On the "blue card", the ministers will debate criteria which define the status of highly qualified work (degrees, professional experience, salary bracket), and the overlap between a Community regime and the national regimes. On the "sanction" directive, they will decide whether or not they feel it is appropriate to set in place minimum penalties and whether it is possible to put a figure on an objective in terms of inspections in certain sectors in which black-market work is rife within the Member States. The Council will adopt conclusions on welcoming Iraqi refugees in the Member States of the EU. Whilst stressing the need to create conditions for these people to return to Iraq, the Council will call upon the Member States to welcome the most vulnerable of these into their countries, on the basis of their capacity to do so. The ministers will also be presented with the state of play with work on the draft European immigration and asylum act, which was presented at the informal meeting of Cannes on 7 July. A new text will be prepared by the Presidency the end of August on the basis of the latest consultations with the Member States. Lastly, the Commission will present its recent communications on immigration and asylum (EUROPE 9683).
Home affairs. On Thursday afternoon, the Home Affairs Ministers will hold a debate on the draft European passenger name record (PNR), a sensitive dossier which aims to allow the competent authorities of the Member States to use the information held by airlines concerning passengers, as several countries already do (the United Kingdom and Denmark). The Presidency hopes to continue the work started during the second half of the year on the proposal of the Commission, by working together with the main stakeholders (including the European Parliament and the national data protection authorities) to hold thematic debates to work out the essential characteristics of this future system. The Presidency will also take steps towards obtaining an agreement of the Council on the principle of the creation- and details- of the implementation of the European platform to report Internet crime and, with the support of the Commission, the creation of an action plan on cyber-crime.
Justice. On Friday morning, the Justice Ministers will seek a political agreement on the revision of decisions on two legal cooperation instruments: Eurojust and the European judicial network. This reinforcement of Eurojust aims, amongst other things, to increase the transmission of information concerning multilateral dossiers, harmonise the powers of the national members within Eurojust, create an emergency cooperation mechanism in the event of international letters rogatory and create liaison magistrate posts in third States. Ministers will also be examining the ECRIS system of linking the 27 criminal record systems. This cooperation is vital for the creation of a broad, interconnected European register of criminal records. On family law, the ministers will continue their reflection with a view to a political solution concerning rules applicable to divorce (Rome III). The ministers will discuss to what extent it would be appropriate for the EU to develop reinforced cooperation in this field. Nine Member States (Romania has recently added itself to the list of eight favourable Member States: see EUROPE 9708) are believed to be prepared to commit to this kind of cooperation which, if it goes ahead, would be a first in the history of the Union. This solution would present major plus-value for the EU, as more than 20% of divorces within the Union are international in nature.
The French Presidency will send the European Commission reports of the "group of the future" of the home affairs and immigration ministers on the one hand, and of the Justice ministers on the other. These reports constitute major contributions to preparations for the multi-annual programme to carry on where The Hague programme will leave off in 2010. The Commission will present its new programme in the first half of 2009. (B.C.)