Justice and Home Affairs Council (Hansard, 13 December 1999)

§ Mr. Straw

The Minister of State, Home Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Mrs. Roche), and I represented the United Kingdom at the Council. The main matters dealt with were as follows"A" points The Council agreed as an "A" point, among other things, the draft Council Conclusions on the implementation of measures to combat child sex tourism. Follow-up to the Tampere Council The European Commission presented its proposals for a "scoreboard" to monitor the implementation of the conclusions of the Tampere Special European Council and commitments arising from the Treaty of Amsterdam. Draft Mutual Legal Assistance Convention Good progress was made on the negotiation of this important instrument and a number of Member States were able to lift their reservations. Counterfeiting the Euro The Council agreed the substance of the proposed Framework Decision subject to a small number of, mainly procedural, reservations. Draft Insolvency Regulation All aspects of this draft instrument were agreed, except for the question of territorial application on which discussions are continuing. Draft Service of Documents Regulation The Council agreed the text of the proposed Regulation subject to a United Kingdom Parliamentary scrutiny reservation and reserves relating to the instrument's scope. Draft Directive on Electronic Commerce The Council discussed the criminal law aspects of this draft Directive, the overall objectives of which the United Kingdom fully supports. Organised Crime The Council considered progress of work on two draft documents: "Prevention and Control of Organised Crime: A European Strategy for the New Millennium"; and the 1998 European Union "Organised Crime Situation Report". Draft Eurodac Regulation The Presidency reported that considerable progress had been made on the draft regulation. It was noted that the European Parliament would need to be re-consulted on the draft instrument and that the United Kingdom maintained a Parliamentary scrutiny reserve. Commission Proposal on Admission on Family Reunification The Commission introduced its proposal to give European Union citizens and legally resident third country nationals the right to have non-European Union family members join them. Member States gave a general welcome to the proposal which was remitted to the relevant working group for detailed consideration. Draft Negotiations mandate on Dublin Parallel Agreement with Norway and Iceland The Council noted that the negotiating mandate had effectively been agreed, other than as regards the question of its territorial application.