Brussels, 10/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 10 June, the European Commission adopted a communication on the Stockholm Programme consisting of a variety of different proposals for the next five years in the areas of justice and internal affairs and setting out its priorities on questions of citizenship, justice, security, asylum and immigration for the next five years. The debate will continue at the Council of European Justice and Home Affairs ministers and at the European Parliament, in view of the European Council adopting the programme on 10-11 December under the Swedish Presidency, which attaches a lot of importance to this dossier (EUROPE 9917). An action plan for implementing this programme will then be adopted next spring under the Spanish Presidency.
During a press conference, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, pointed out that 20 years ago “these policies, which are fundamental for citizens, were purely inter-governmental and had no European dimension in the Community sense of the word”. Since then, the European Union's activities have considerably increased and now “the freedom, security and justice area is reaching maturity”. With this new programme, the Commission is particularly seeking to address citizens and respond to their concerns. The new Stockholm programme is due to “build on the basis of considerable progress accomplished over recent years”. This president of the Commission said that progress includes (the Commission also adopted a communication on The Hague programme report): removing border controls within the Schengen area (which now allows more than 400 citizens from 25 countries to travel from the Iberian peninsula to the Baltic States and from Greece to Finland without any border controls); “increased cooperation” between national authorities on security questions; “more coherent” management of the EU's external borders, in large part down to the Frontex agency; the creation of a common basis not just for immigration policy but also with the common European asylum system; the European arrest warrant.
Nonetheless, Mr Barroso warned that this “political maturity should not lead us to inaction but the contrary”. He appealed for more vision, ambition and action because of the many challenges, particularly: the exercise of citizens' rights and the protection of fundamental rights; civil justice; the fight against cross-border crime; the fight against terrorism; managing migratory pressures, particularly in certain zones of the EU; the fight against illegal immigration and solidarity between member states on asylum matters.
Mr Barroso stressed that “the challenges largely go beyond our national borders” and responses should be developed at a European level, in cooperation with “our partners in the world”. The Stockholm programme aims to ensure greater freedom to EU citizens in a safer environment, explained Mr Barroso, who also spoke about a vast and ambitious strategy, “worthy of a Europe of values and its strong democratic and legal traditions”
The Commission vice president, Jacques Barrot, identified some future challenges: 8 million Europeans living in a member state, which is not their member state of origin; civil justice, one in ten inheritances in the Union has an international dimension; cyber crime is constantly growing (1500 internet sites contain child pornography); there are 1636 designated points of entry into Union territory (in 2006, the number of journeys was around 900 million); in 2006 in the EU, almost 4% of the total population was made up of nationals from non-EU countries (18.5 million)
The future programme should be devised around four major priorities yielding specific proposals to make the benefits of a European area of freedom, security and justice more effective and more tangible for ordinary citizens.
Promoting citizens' rights: a Europe of rights
The Commission is proposing that the Union has a full personal data protection system. Mr Barrot said that they were even thinking about creating European technology certification for products and services that respect privacy. Following the Bombay attacks, there should also be consular protection in order to learn all the different lessons. The commissioner for justice, freedom and security said that Europe is moving towards the creation of pilot states that will ensure this consular protection for all EU nationals. Mr Barrot also said that the Commission had mentioned the possibility of organising European elections in the same week around 9 May, for example. He stated that “this is to help voting for all nationals” Other initiatives include: EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights; mutual recognition of the effects of civil state acts; an ambitious European strategy on children's rights; the strengthening of EU civil protection mechanism.
Making life easier - a Europe of justice:
Mutual recognition remains the cornerstone of the European justice area. The Commission is particularly keen on getting rid of the certificate of enforceability for the execution of legal decisions in different member states (namely, different judges must execute the same decision). The Commission emphasised the training of judges and at least half of judges and prosecutors from the EU following European training or taking part in exchanges with other member states. The Commission also suggests that for criminal law and serious crimes, there is a move to a more common definition of the most serious offences. The Commission also looked at the development of e-justice (the computerised portal will be available to European citizens by the end of the year to help resolve small scale litigation). The Commission imagines a bank account attachment procedure. It would like authentic acts, marriage and birth certificates to move more freely within the EU. The Commission is also proposing a 28th regime for contracts in an effort to make European type contracts available to companies.
A Europe that protects
Jacques Barrot explained that the Commission is highlighting the need for police cooperation, criminal law and border management policies to be better integrated and coordinated. According to the Commission, they need to devise a better information systems architecture; possibly create an internal security fund (for supporting efforts to use state-of-the-art technologies); improve training for security professionals (by creating “Erasmus” type exchange programmes for the police); create a European warrant for obtaining evidence; minimum guarantees for criminal proceedings. Border management, the Commission wants to strengthen Frontex.
The information systems (SIS II, VIS) should enter a totally operational phase. An electronic entry and exit registration system (important for controlling visas) and a registered traveller programme to be set up (the Commission also suggest studying the possibility of a preliminary authorisation system for travelling).
The Commission is proposing that the EU has a European Schengen system. Joint centres for granting visas in third countries, a prelude to a common consular authority, will be set up. Conclusion of facilitation agreements with third countries will be pursued at the same time as regular revision of lists of countries subject to compulsory visa requirements. Gradually, the Europe visa system is expected to evolve into a system based on the granting of visas based on the appreciation of individual risk and not nationality, explained Mr Barrot in reply to questions from the press.
The Commission will ultimately target the fight against organised crime on five main problem areas: the traffic in human beings (it will be necessary to fight the human traffickers effectively by improving intelligence and strategic analysis and setting up reception mechanism for proof that are adapted and improved to help victims); the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography (gaol: promote the exchange of information on convicted criminals, block access to sites containing child pornography etc); cyber crime (to create a European platform at Europol indicating offences, in an effort to fight this phenomenon more effectively); economic crime (to better identify market abuses, improve the operational framework in confiscation and seizing of criminals' assets, fighting corruption by putting a deterrent into place for fighting counterfeiting); drugs - the Union must ultimately control the risk of terrorism by fighting efficiently against radicalisation, explains the Commission.
A responsible Europe of solidarity with regard to immigration and asylum
The Commission wants: observers to have more accurate statistics on immigration in order to plan ahead; an immigration code (for legal immigrants); common rules for efficiently managing family reunification. Asylum, the Commission want to obtain a single asylum procedure with greater solidarity between member states by way of a voluntary reinstallation mechanism, if necessary) and an asylum policy that is in solidarity with third countries (developing regional protection programmes for refugees).
In reply to the press, Mr Barroso explained that the next European Council (18-19 June should, in his opinion, discuss the problem of solidarity between member states in their response to illegal immigration, especially in the Mediterranean. Italy is also requesting that this point be included on the agenda. (L.C./transl.rh)