Justice and Home Affairs Council, 19 March (Hansard, 8 April 1998)

§ Lord Williams of Mostyn

My right honourable friend the Home Secretary chaired the Council on behalf of the Presidency. My honourable friend the Minister of State (Joyce Quin) represented the United Kingdom. The main matters dealt with were as follows.

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The Council agreed a number of "A" points, including a Council Decision on sharing the cost of preparing film masters for the uniform format of residence permits; Council conclusions on the G8 recommendations on organised crime and terrorism, and on the G8 principles on high tech crime; instruments on the exchange of information in immigration and asylum matters and on dealing with missing persons and unidentified corpses; reports on the Europol Drugs Unit's activities for 1997 and its work programme for 1998; and rules governing certain aspects of Europol's operation, in preparation for when the Europol Convention comes into force. These rules covered the Europol computer system, receipt of information from third states and third bodies and confidentiality for the information held by Europol.

In addition, the Council agreed as "A" points a number of joint actions enabling Community funding of Third Pillar activity. The Odysseus programme will support training, exchanges and co-operation in the field of asylum, immigration and the crossing of external borders. The Falcone programme will support exchanges, training and co-operation in the fight against organised crime. Community funding will also be available to support projects in favour of displaced persons, asylum seekers and refugees.

The Council agreed Presidency proposals designed to improve openness and transparency in justice and home affairs, in particular by making details of proposals available more easily and earlier, providing more frequent and more detailed information for the press, and having open debates on particular topics from time to time. A Council decision to publish a comprehensive public register of Council documents was also agreed as an "A" point.

The Council had a full discussion of the justice and home affairs implications of the enlargement process on the basis of a Presidency paper. The Council reaffirmed the need for Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in the member states, and national experts, to be fully involved in the enlargement process and underlined the importance of effective monitoring of the progress made by the applicant states in taking on and implementing the Justice and Home Affairs acquis. Ministers agreed that enlargement should feature as a standing item on future Justice and Home Affairs council agendas.

The draft Convention on driving disqualification was discussed, and provisional agreement reached on the text. However, some further work is still needed on a small number of outstanding issues.

The draft Joint Action to establish a European Judicial Network was discussed. The text has now been agreed by all but one member state, which was not prepared to lift its reserve at the Council. The Presidency will pursue bilateral contacts with the member state concerned. Another Joint Action concerning participation in a criminal organisation was agreed subject to one minor reserve, and should be formally adopted shortly.

The draft Convention on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters was discussed, and considerable progress made on a number of outstanding points.

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The Council received a progress report on ratification of the Europol Convention. This showed that only three member states have yet to complete the necessary procedures for ratifying the Europol Convention, and hope to do so before the end of the United Kingdom Presidency. The Council also agreed in principle to advance the date when Europol's mandate with regard to terrorism will become effective.

The Council reviewed implementation of the action plan on the influx of migrants from Iraq, taking note of a report of a recent visit by the Presidency to Turkey, which is a major country of transit for migrants.

The Council also considered the current state of negotiations on the Eurodac Convention on finger-printing of asylum seekers. It was clear from the discussion that a number of issues remain to be resolved and that further work will be required on this important instrument.

Implementation of the Dublin Convention was also discussed. This Convention, which has only recently come into force, establishes the state responsible for deciding asylum applications. The Council took note of ongoing work to draw up a programme of action aimed at ensuring effective implementation of the convention.