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EU: Tampere European Council: An "Area of freedomsecurityand justice" or "an obsession with Security"? (feature)

01 May 1999

The Tampere EU Summit in Finland on 15-16 October will adopt far-reaching, long-term, plans on policing, immigration and asylum, the European "legal order". The Summit will be attended by EU Prime Ministers and EU Foreign Ministers (not Home and Interior Ministers). A whole raft of reports implementing the agreed Council and Commission position adopted in December 1998 will be adopted.

The agenda so far

The EU Action Plan on Organised Crime (drawn up by the High-Level Group on Organised Crime and adopted in April 1997) is likely to be up-dated and given a renewed mandate. A "Strategy paper on migration" will be adopted, together with the report from the High Level Working Group on Asylum and Migration which will include "Action Plans" for four or five countries (Morocco, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan/Pakistan, plus Iraq; Albania is likely to be held in "abeyance"). This High Level Group will also be given a renewed mandate with five or six new "targets countries" (see Statewatch, vol 9 no 1). Both the Strategy paper and the "Action Plans" are geared to excluding people from the EU and include re-admission and expulsion to the country or region of origin (states which do not agree will face the possibility of have economic and humanitarian aid withdrawn).

Migration strategy - refining fortress Europe

The current Finnish Presidency's draft report, "Guidelines for a European migration strategy" (ASIM 23, 1.6.99) in circulation is seen, by some, to represent a major improvement over the controversial Austrian Presidency paper, "Strategy paper on migration and asylum policy" (1.6.98). The Austrian paper was declared "dead and buried" at the end of its Presidency but in its place the German Presidency (January-June 1999) produced "Strategy on migration and migration policy" (ASIM 3, 19.1.99). The German Presidency report selected 48 of the 116 recommendations in the Austrian report for immediate action.

Alongside the Finnish Presidency's general report are detailed plans (set by the German Presidency) being drawn up by EU working parties such as: Asylum Working Party (Admission) and migration (Expulsion), the Visa Working Party and the Multidisciplinary Group on Organised Crime.

Unseen issues

Other issues known to be on the Tampere agenda include increasing Europol's (operational) powers; the Schengen Information System (SIS) and the Customs Information System (CIS) sharing data; tackling legal differences either by "harmonisation" or more likely "mutual recognition" of national court judgements; and possibly "suspects' rights" when arrested and put on trial in an EU state other then their own. Fair Trials Abroad is taking up this latter issue which affects arrest, release on bail, interpretation and quick access to legal advice. The group's director Stephen Jakobi told the House of Lords Select Committee in June: "The political drive towards the creation of a European legal space is largely, if not entirely, fuelled by law and order concerns. The balance implied by Freedom, Security and Justice is becoming in practice an obsession with Security."

No time for democratic debate

The timetable for Tampere is likely to be as follows:

i) Working and "expert" groups complete proposals by end of July or the beginning of September;

ii) Article 36 Committee (9-10 September), Strategic Committee on immigration and asylum, COREPER (8 and 15 September) discuss draft plans;

iii) Informal Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Turku, Finland (16-17 September) where the ministers will try to sort out major differences;

iv) Justice and Home Affairs Council, 4-5 October in Luxembourg where Tampere is top of the agenda and the High Level Group on Asylum and Migration present their final report;

v) COREPER (6 October) and General Affairs Council (11-12 October) agree the final reports;

vi) Tampere European Council, Finland, 15-16 October.

The newly-elected Eu