Informal Justice and Home Affairs Council

HC Deb 01 February 1996 vol 270 c872W

Ms Quin

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the proceedings and outcome of the EU informal Justice and Home Affairs Council on 26 to 27 January. [13111]

Mr. Howard

The United Kingdom was represented at the informal council in Rome by the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Maidstone (Miss Widdecombe) and, on the second day, by Timothy Walker, a senior Home Office official. It is a rule of procedure within the European Union that informal councils cannot reach decisions or adopt texts. The main matters discussed at the meeting were as follows.

The Italian presidency invited Ministers to approve in principle the text of a draft declaration on organised crime. A number of member states, including the United Kingdom, had difficulty with the wording of the declaration as it stood, and the presidency concluded that further work was required at official level before the declaration could be submitted with a view to formal adoption at the Justice and Home Affairs Council in March.

The Council considered the presidency's work programme for the Europol drugs unit, and for developing the supplementary regulations to the Europol convention. The Council also discussed the outstanding issue of European Court of Justice jurisdiction in the Europol convention.

The presidency set out its priorities for work on immigration and asylum. These included taking forward certain of the proposals contained in the 1994 Commission communication on immigration and asylum, and securing early progress on the Dublin convention which deals with the determination of the state responsible for examining applications for asylum lodged in one of the member states. The presidency said that it also hoped to proceed with work on EURODAC, an initiative to establish a computer-based system of fingerprint exchanges on asylum claims.

The Council discussed some of the issues which are blocking agreement to the draft external frontiers convention, including the dispute between the United Kingdom and Spain over its application to Gibraltar, and held a general discussion on the temporary protection of refugees in the light of recent developments in the situation in Bosnia.

The Council discussed the main problems which had arisen during negotiations on the second convention on simplified extradition and the Brussels II convention on matrimonial matters, and examined ways in which these might be resolved.

The Council discussed arrangements for pursuing contacts with designated third countries on justice and home affairs issues, and the presidency outlined broad proposals for a multi-annual work programme within the third pillar.