Brussels, 03/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - European justice and home affairs ministers will be meeting in Luxembourg on Monday 6 April to seek to resolve the thorny issue of appointing the new director of Europol, and to take stock of the latest developments regarding the possible hosting of Guantanamo inmates by European countries.
Justice. The Council, to be presided in the morning by Czech Justice Minister Jiøi Pospíšil, will discuss the proposal for a framework decision relating to the prevention and settlement of conflicts of jurisdiction in criminal proceedings. The aim is to reach a general guideline on the text. This proposal must aim to prevent the facts specific to one affair being the subject of parallel criminal proceedings in different member states. In the event of continued disagreement between national jurisdictions, the proposal provides for referral to Eurojust, which must give a non-binding opinion. In order to content Denmark, which does not wish to hear of compulsory referral to Eurojust, a compromise should however be found and it should be stated that Eurojust will have the affair referred to it only “where appropriate”. Furthermore, the delegations are likely to press Belgium to ratify the two transatlantic agreements relating to legal cooperation and to extradition, signed on 25 June 2003.
Home affairs. Czech Minister of the Interior Ivan Langer, who may not have his post renewed in the next government, will chair the meeting. During lunch, ministers will seek to reach unanimous agreement on the name of the new Europol director. Since the last discussion in February nothing has changed as neither the United Kingdom nor Hungary wish to withdraw their candidates (EUROPE 9850). During the afternoon, there will be discussion on the possibility of European countries taking Guantanamo inmates in, after the recent visit made by Commissioner Jacques Barrot and Ivan Langer to Washington (EUROPE 9871 and 9865). The Presidency is also expected to take stock of American responses to questions raised by Europeans (see other article). Although absent from the agenda, the problem of immigration should also be raised by some countries, mainly after the disappearance some days ago of nearly 300 migrants in the Mediterranean. The Council will also hold a political debate on an October 1997 proposal for establishing a single application procedure for a single permit for third-country nationals to reside and work in a member state and a common set of rights for third-country workers legally residing in the EU. Some countries, however, including Germany and Austria, hope issuance of such permits will be restricted to certain categories of migrants. If there is too much delay on this dossier, it may come under co-decision with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. The Council will discuss the authorisation that could be given to Europol to begin negotiations with Russia to conclude an operational cooperation agreement. Considering that data protection is at stake, the Netherlands and Belgium hope to gain more information from the Russians. The problem is that the EU, which calls for such an agreement, is the one that makes things drag along. France therefore suggests asking Europol for a mandate, demanding that the first phase of talks should be on data protection. The joint committee will examine the state of progress of work on the Schengen Information System (SIS II) and the Visa Information System (VIS) - (EUROPE 9850). On SIS II, France is expected to announce the launch of a call for tenders ahead of an alternative solution (SIS 1+) in order to have an idea of the cost. On VIS, states will be asked to speed up their preparations with a view to connecting national systems to the central system. (B.C./transl.jl)