HC Deb 24 June 2004 vol 422 cc1515-7W
Mr. Connarty

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the outcome was of the Justice and Home Affairs Council held on 8 June; what the Government's stance was on the issues discussed, including its voting record; and if he will make a statement. [178898]

Caroline Flint

I represented the United Kingdom at the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council in Luxembourg on 8 June.

Police and Judicial co-operation

Further to the European Council Declaration on Terrorism the JHA Council noted a number of papers, including a draft report to the European Council on the implementation of previously agreed instruments; a draft Action Plan listing the actions to be taken by who within the EU and by when; and two discussion papers by the Counter Terrorism Co-ordinator, Gijs de Vries. The Council also adopted Council Conclusions noting action taken since the European Council and requesting further work.

Along with the majority of other member states I supported the report on intelligence capacities by the Secretary General Javier Solana. In addition I set out the UK's five priorities on practical Counter-terrorist co-operation. Firstly, that all member states should be able to exchange information through the Visa Information System. Secondly/that there needed to be interoperability between EU and national databases. Thirdly, that all member states should be actively involved with the European Borders Agency. Fourthly, that all member states need to include biometrics in passports and, finally, that the EU needs to find a way of taking action on security measures on ID cards.

Commissioner Vitorino then presented the Communication on the implementation of measures agreed at the Tampere Council in 1999 and highlighting the positive work done, notably on migration and counter-terrorism. Emphasising that the new College and JHA Commissioner would have their own views on the future JHA programme, Vitorino identified integration of the new member states into Schengen, and action at the EU's external border to combat illegal immigration and trafficking as important areas for future JHA action. He also saw a need for further work on common standards for criminal procedural law, on data protection and on rules on evidence in cross-border prosecutions. Finally, he identified the need for better evaluation and implementation of adopted legislation.

A minority of member states then gave initial reactions to the document and set out some of their priorities. The Netherlands indicated that they expected the June European Council to task the JHA Council with developing an appropriate response to the Commission's Communication. They therefore asked for written comments from member states and indicated that there would be further Ministerial discussion of the Communication at the July JHA Council.

The Council reached a general approach on the Framework Decision on mutual recognition of confiscation orders. The Presidency commended work done so far to prepare the future EU drugs strategy 2005–12. There was no decision on who should be the director of Europol

Under Any Other Business Germany noted that all member states were welcome to join the recent common declaration by Germany, the Benelux countries and Austria on efforts to improve practical law enforcement co-operation. Immigration and Asylum

Following agreement, welcome to the UK, that it could be used by member states to support resettlement schemes the Council reached agreement on the Council Decision to establish the European Refugee Fund.

In addition, the Council adopted the Council Decision establishing the Visa Information System and Council Conclusions setting out the elements for establishing preparatory actions for a financial instrument for managing returns. A General Approach was reached on the Council Recommendation on facilitating the admission to the EU of scientific researchers.

The Commission presented two Communications. The first on the links between legal and illegal migration focused on economic migration, bilateral labour agreements and regularisation measures but concluded that the impact of legal migration measures on illegal immigration was impossible to quantify.

The Commission indicated that, later this year, they planned to issue a Green Paper on the extent to which the admission of economic migrants should be regulated at EU level, but noted that there was no consensus on the (Italian Presidency's) idea of an EU migration quota.

The second communication on the entry to the EU of people in need of international protection focused on enhancing protection capacity in the regions of origin and resettlement in the EU.

I welcomed the Communication and made clear that although our earlier proposals on zones of protection had been a useful contribution to the debate, our thinking had moved on and we were no longer pushing them. Two other member states intervened: one to support the communication and the second to oppose. The Presidency therefore concluded that there would be further debate at the July JHA Council.

During the Mixed Committee the Presidency sought views on whether the draft Regulation on standards for security features and biometrics in passports should require one or two mandatory biometric identifiers, and whether the second identifier—be it mandatory or optional—should be fingerprints. I pointed out that the UK is currently running trials of the different technologies and that it would be better to wait for the results before deciding what the second identifier should be. Although two other member states supported me, a majority supported fingerprints as a second indicator although there was no consensus as to whether this should be mandatory. The Presidency concluded that further work should proceed on the basis of one mandatory biometric identifier, the facial image, and a second optional indicator, namely fingerprints.

In the margins of the Council Ministers agreed an intergovernmental resolution calling for certain linguistic changes to be made to member states' passports to take account of EU enlargement and calling on the new member states to start issuing EU formatted passports from 1 January 2007.

Finally, the list of A points as in 10120/04 PTS A 28 was adopted. A copy has been placed in the Library.

Percentage
1998–1999 1999–2000 2000–2001 2001–2002 2002–2003 2003–2004
Barking and Dagenham 19.1 14.3 13.3 13.5 17.6 16.8
Barnet 22.2 16.1 17.3 16.6 13.3 13.6
Bexley 17.4 13.7 12.6 12.5 14.8 15.3
Brent 20.6 13.1 12.4 13.9 12.1 14.5
Bromley 20.3 14.0 12.9 13.4 14.1 16.5
Camden 23.3 16.4 14.4 12.2 13.5 16.6
Croydon 21.8 16.1 16.5 13.8 14.3 14.7
Ealing 23.1 17.5 15.5 16.4 17.3 15.8
Enfield 21.6 13.0 15.1 13.1 15.4 14.5
Greenwich 23.0 19.5 19.4 16.4 13.9 13.2
Hackney 22.5 15.0 13.8 14.9 14.8 13.3
Hammersmith and Fulham 21.0 15.0 14.0 14.8 13.7 16.3
Haringey 22.0 22.2 23.0 19.2 22.5 20.4
Harrow 26.3 18.0 17.1 14.3 14.2 14.5
Havering 24.2 17.7 14.5 15.1 16.3 16.3
Heathrow Airport 35.4 27.6 29.9 26.8 25.5 26.4
Hillingdon 16.8 11.9 11.8 11.9 13.1 15.0
Hounslow 18.3 13.5 14.0 13.2 13.8 15.1
Islington 21 2 14.8 16.4 14.5 12.1 15.2
Kensington and Chelsea 21.6 13.2 13.3 15.6 17.3 17.1
Kingston upon Thames 27.0 20.8 18.0 17.2 14.8 14.1
Lambeth 18.2 12.8 10.9 9.0 11.6 15.5
Lewisham 20.9 19.0 19.5 17.7 16.9 16.5
Merton 18.5 15.8 14.4 13.8 11.9 17.3
Newham 18.5 13.9 13.8 14.0 13.9 13.8
Redbridge 19.5 12.3 11.7 10.3 11.2 14.3
Richmond upon Thames 15.7 14.0 13.8 14.5 14.9 13.5
Southwark 25.7 18.5 15.0 13.3 12.6 13.1
Sutton 26.1 19.8 19.0 16.1 16.1 15.2
Tower Hamlets 22.9 16.5 13.9 12.6 11.8 11.8
Waltham Forest 24.0 19.2 17.3 13.3 13.3 13.7
Wandsworth 15.2 12.9 12.0 12.5 17.1 15.8
Westminster 22.9 16.5 14.5 13.8 14.3 17.6