HC Deb 14 March 1995 vol 256 cc486-7W
Mr. Jenkin

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give an account of decisions taken in the European Community Council of Ministers meeting on 9 March; if he will make it his policy that the United Kingdom will not accept majority voting on European Community immigration policy or visa policy; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

The main results of the Council were as follows.

The member states signed a convention on simplified extradition procedures. This was the first convention to be adopted under the third pillar of the treaty on European Union.

In accordance with proposals originally put forward by the United Kingdom, the Council agreed in principle to focus in the short term on the preparation of a legally binding instrument on fraud affecting the Community budget that would deal only with key elements. This should enable the Council to meet the European Council's request that agreement on a legally binding instrument on this subject should be reached in the first half of 1995, and would be without prejudice to the continuation of more detailed work on fraud against the Community budget. The Government welcome this further progress in the fight against fraud.

The Council noted progress on the development of a convention covering jurisdiction and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial cases, known as the Brussels convention II. It agreed that officials should continue work with a view to the first part of the convention covering scope and jurisdiction, being concluded by June.

The Council adopted a joint action extending the remit of the Europol drugs unit in The Hague to cover the fight against illegal trade in radioactive and nuclear materials, the smuggling of persons, vehicle trafficking and associated money laundering operations.

The Council considered the outstanding issues arising from the draft Europol convention and instructed officials to continue to work to resolve them in the light of the views that had been expressed.

The Council requested the Committee of Permanent Representatives to consider remaining points of difficulty on the draft convention establishing a customs information system.

The Council reached broad agreement on the text of a regulation on a uniform format for visas, subject to a parliamentary scrutiny reserve entered by the UK pending debate in Parliament on the draft external frontiers convention and related matters.

The Council adopted a resolution on minimum guarantees for asylum procedures. The UK made a declaration that it would apply the prescribed procedures relating to any applications by nationals of member states to the extent permitted by domestic legislation.

Significant differences of view emerged during discussion of a draft resolution on burden sharing of temporarily displaced persons, on which the Council commissioned further work by officials.

The Council approved the third pillar contribution to the European Union's strategy on racism and xenophobia which will be considered by the European Council meeting at Cannes.

Immigration and visa matters are generally handled, in the European Union context, under the provisions of title VI—the third pillar—of the treaty of European Union. Proceedings under title VI are subject to a unanimity voting regime, and it is the Government's policy to ensure that this is maintained. The Community has competence under article 100c of the treaty of Rome only in relation to the common visa list and a uniform visa format. Article 100c provides that the uniform visa format is already subject to qualified majority voting: the common visa list will be subject to qualified majority voting from 1 January 1996.