EU: Justice and Home Affairs Council27.3.00
01 March 2000
Two meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA Council) are held during each EU Presidency, this was the first under the Portuguese Presidency (which goes on to the end of June). Press interest in JHA Council meetings has fallen off in the past year certainly from the international pages of major papers which does not of course means nothing happened simply that it was not reported.
Joint teams
Before the JHA Council meeting it was expected that agreement would be reached on a decision to create "Joint teams to conduct criminal investigations in one or more member state".
The rationale was that the EU member states do not want to wait until the Convention on Mutual Assistance on criminal matters has been agreed (probably May 2000) and then ratified by national parliaments in the EU (two to three years, especially as it contains controversial power to intercept telecommunications). To the EU member states, who have been waiting for fours years on the text of the draft Convention, the process of having to wait for national ratification is seen as tiresome and time-wasting. So it was proposed at the December JHA Council that Article 13 of the draft Convention could simply be taken out it and speedily put through as a framework decision.
A number of member states were concerned at putting joint investigative teams in place before agreement had been reached on the Convention. Indeed the late move by Luxembourg to change the draft Convention to protect its financial dealing led the Netherlands to block political agreement setting up joint teams.
Officially the JHA Council decided to refer the issue back to its working parties and the Article 36 Committee. In practice it will no surprise if once "political agreement" is reached on the the draft Convention the framework decision on joint teams does not quickly re-emerge in another form(doc ref: 5698/1/00 CATS 6 REV 1).
One reason it is expected that there will be a move sooner rather than later on the creation of joint teams of police able to operate across national borders is another proposal (not on this JHA agenda) to create a "European Police Chiefs Operational Task Force". It is intended that the "Task Force" would be an informal high-level group within the EU structure reporting only to the JHA Council via the Article 36 Committee. Among its job would be high-level strategic planning and could initiate investigations. One of the problems for the Council is how to give it access to Europol data analysis files without having to change the Europol Convention (doc ref: 5858/00 CATS 9).
Issues discussed
Draft Convention on Mutual Assistance in criminal matters: The JHA Council says it has resolved all the outstanding questions except that of data protection and the late proposal by Luxembourg on financial issues (doc ref: 7112/00 COPEN 21 and 7046/00 COPEN 19).
The Scoreboard: Commissioner Vittorino presented the "Scoreboard" which sets out targets and dates for measures and initiatives for justice and home affairs.
Framework decision on the protection of the euro against counterfeiting: the JHA Council reached "political agreement" on this framework decision which would supplement the 1929 International Convention for the suppression of counterfeiting currency. The offence of altering or making currency would be punishable by terms of imprisonment of not less than 8 years (doc ref: 7047/00 DROIPEN 10).
The prevention and control of organised crime: a European strategy for the beginning of the new millennium: a lengthy report was approved with a series of recommendations including "strengthening partnerships between the criminal justice system and civil society" (doc ref: 6611/00 CRIMORG 36).
Collective evaluation: preliminary country reports on Czech Republic and Hungary: the Council took note of a report which outlined "the progress achieved by the two candidate countries but also their short