HC Deb 20 May 1999 vol 331 cc445-6W
Mr. Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement concerning the business conducted at the K4 committee at its meeting in Brussels on 29 and 30 April; under what title that committee will continue to operate; and with what terms of reference and duties. [84657]

Mr. Straw

The agenda for the final meeting of the K4 Committee on 29–30 April covered 25 separate items. The most significant of those concerned implementing rules for Eurodac, re-admission agreements after the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty, displaced persons from Kosovo, Europol' s budget, a United Kingdom proposal for a programme of work on mutual recognition of criminal court decisions and preparation of the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council meeting on 27–28 May.

The United Kingdom paper on mutual recognition was given a generally warm welcome as an important contribution to the special European Council meeting on JHA matters to be held at Tampere in October. Confirmation was given that Europol should be in a position formally to take up its activities before the end of the Germany Presidency.

With the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty on 1 May, the K4 Committee was replaced by a new co-ordinating committee, with broadly similar functions, established under Article 36 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). The new committee' s terms of reference are set out in Article 36, and are limited to police (including customs) and judicial co-operation in criminal matters.

Matters relating to visas, asylum, immigration and certain other policies related to free movement of persons, now transferred to the First Pillar of the TEU, will in future be overseen by a new Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum, set up initially for a five-year transitional period and tasked to issue strategic guidelines in matters relating to immigration, frontiers and asylum; to deal with questions arising from Articles 62–64 of the Treaty Establishing the European Community (TEU); and to give substantive input to Coreper's discussions.