Results of the informal meeting of the justice and home affairs ministers

Towards renewed political engagement for asylum and immigration

The French Presidency proposed a draft European pact on immigration and asylum to its partners. The text is a strongly expressed political objective to commit Member States to adopting common principles to guide the European Union’s immigration policy within a spirit of solidarity and responsibility.

Under the direction of Brice Hortefeux, the French Minister of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Mutually-Supportive Development, the proposals and underlying principles of the French Presidency’s initiative received a warm reception in the initial discussions between the 27. Indeed, some Member States have already expressed their full support for the current version of the text.

Discussions will continue over the coming weeks with a view to the pact being adopted during the European Council in October.

Towards a more secure and citizen-centric Europe

The French Presidency is advocating intensified operational cooperation between the police services of the 27 Member States to step up the fight against organized crime and international terrorism. Michèle Alliot-Marie, the French Minister of the Interior, Overseas France and Territorial Communities, and her European counterparts reaffirmed the necessity for the European Union to improve the daily security of its citizens, envisaging greater convergence of their respective services, through a realistic, balanced approach to strengthening security while safeguarding civil liberties. Ms Alliot-Marie has proposed developing a European platform to signal illegal sites and setting up ‘European police stations’ in tourist areas and in times of major events. With regard to the fight against drug trafficking, Alliot-Marie proposed the creation of a centre to coordinate the fight against maritime trafficking in the Mediterranean.

The French Presidency also wants to endow the European Union with a voluntary solidarity action plan to respond to the disasters, natural or not, that affect our countries each year. To this end, it proposes that the Member States voluntarily make available the people and resources necessary to intervene wherever necessary in the event of a major crisis.

The work from this meeting will be presented to the Council mid-way through the French Presidency. Lastly, Ms Alliot-Marie presented the conclusions of the report of the ‘future group’ on internal security issues, an informal group comprising eight Member States, which has been set up to produce suggestions for the period 2010-2014.

Advancing the European judicial area

In the Cannes meeting presided by Rachida Dati, French Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, the justice ministers emphasised their determination to take ambitious measures to protect EU citizens:

- For a common legal culture for magistrates and judicial personnel

The support from the majority of justice ministers should allow the Council to begin work on a resolution to establish common criteria for training magistrates.

- For concrete measures in favour of vulnerable adults and children

All the Member States and the European Commission supported the Presidency’s proposal aimed at ratification of the Hague Convention of 13 January 2000. This will be an important step towards reinforcing the rights of the most vulnerable.

To illustrate the need to establish a common abdcution ‘alert’ system for abductions, the Presidency aired a film recounting the cross-border child abduction exercise carried out between Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg in June 2008. The European Commission signalled its intention to develop a guide to good practice aimed at developing this type of cooperation.

 

Video

Listen to the interview with Brice Hortefeux, Michèle Alliot-Marie and Rachida Dati on 8 July on Europe 1 (in french)  

Audio, video and photo archive 

• Updated: 23.12.2008

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