EU: JHA Council May 1998
01 May 1998
The meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels on 28-29 May opened with the much-heralded "open debate on organised crime". It started late and then in sound only at first, with some sixty-odd members of the public and journalists watching the "debate" on a large screen. Each of the 15 Interior Ministers and the Commission read out prepared speeches. Jack Straw, Home Secretary, opened and reviewed the progress made under the UK Presidency of the EU. Dr Schelter, German Minister of Interior, said that:
"organised crime is mainly international cross-border crime. In Germany over 60% of all incidents reveal an international dimension. The perpetrators come from 101 countries."
His theme that "crime" originates from an "external threat" had to be combated, he said, through:
"security at the external borders.. Illegal immigration often nurtures and promotes crime. Opening the borders to our European neighbours cannot be allowed to lead to a loss of security. Our citizens will not accept that under any circumstances."
The Swedish Interior Minister said that "enlargement was the most efficient way of dealing with organised crime". The Dutch Minister said that the fight against organised crime "cannot be hindered by procedural problems". The French Minister said that a "legal area" had to be created, work on policing was progressing but EU judicial cooperation was needed. The Italian and Danish Ministers drew attention to "the clear link between environmental crime and organised crime". Only the Finnish Minister sounded a critical note when he said that trust in the police would be lost if they "misused their powers" and that it was necessary to "control the activities of authorities and make them liable for their policies". For the Commission Mrs Gradin chided the assembled Ministers over the failure of a single Member State to ratify the convention on fraud and corruption.
Fudge over Gibraltar
Faced with the long-standing failure to resolve the dispute between the UK and Spain over the status of Gibraltar meant there were no less than four references which excluded Gibraltar. In the Convention on Driving Disqualifications and draft Eurodac Convention there is:
"With regard to territorial scope..., as regards the United Kingdom, it will only apply to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland."
In the Joint Action on Establishing a Judicial Network there are the additional words "the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man." In the draft Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in criminal matters: the territorial scope was a "remaining problem".
Other decisions
Convention on driving disqualification: after seven years of discussions and three years of detailed negotiation political agreement was reached on this Convention. Using the concept of "state of the offence" and "state of residence" it seeks to enforce bans throughout the EU. The Convention allows the first member states to complete ratification to declare they will apply it in regard to other member states who similarly make a declaration.
Joint Action on good practice in mutual legal assistance in criminal matters: intended to speed up cooperation where requested are made to another member state for mutual legal assistance, it is also meant to cope with request which "are left without reply". Within a year each member state has to deposit a Statement of good practice covering acknowledgement of all requests, give name and contacts details of responsible authorities, giving priority to urgent requests, and give an explanation when a request cannot be met.
Joint Action to create a European Judicial Network: will set up a network of judicial contact points to give "legal and practical information" to counterparts in other member states. The first meeting of the network will be held in September 1998 and in June 1999 will consider whether to set up its own "special telecommunications network" (the Joint<