§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) which officials would be seconded to Eurojust under the terms of the proposals agreed at Tampere; [115553]
(2) what assessment his Department has made of the advantages and disadvantages of extending the powers of the Anti-drugs Co-ordinator to include participation in Eurojust; and if he will make a statement; [115556]
(3) what is his policy regarding the crimes to be covered by Eurojust; and what is the Commission's Prison Officers policy; [115709]
(4) if he will list those elements of the Eurojust proposal which are components of Corpus Juris; and what is his policy on this matter. [115555]
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§ Mr. Charles ClarkeI welcome the decision taken at the Tampere Special European Council to set up Eurojust, as a means of improving judicial co-operation with the European Union. There is very little connection or similarity between Eurojust and the proposals in the "Corpus Juris" document: the Government's view, in line with the Tampere conclusions, is that the role of Eurojust will be to facilitate and support investigations and prosecutions by national authorities, not to act as a European Prosecutor in its own right. The European Council mandated the Justice and Home Affairs Council to adopt the necessary legal instrument establishing Eurojust by the end of 2001.
In line with the conclusions of the Tampere European Council, Eurojust is to be composed of
national prosecutors, magistrates, or police officers of equivalent competence, detached from each member state according to its legal system".The Government believe that Eurojust should deal with serious crime, in particular organised crime offences and the offences for which Europol has responsibility. I understand that the Commission also supports this approach.
I do not believe that it would be necessary or appropriate for the United Kingdom Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator to join in Eurojust' s operational work in relation to individual investigations. It would, however, be open to him to make contacts with Eurojust on the same basis as contacts he has made with other international organisations, in pursuing his strategic role.