EU: The K4 Committee
01 July 2003
The new EC structures which are to replace the existing ad hoc groups when the Maastricht Treaty is finally ratified (Germany has yet to complete ratification) are beginning to emerge. The plethora of EC-wide groups which have been meeting on an intergovernmental basis for nearly 20 years is to be replaced by a single structure. The Trevi Group (started in 1975) and its five working parties, the Ad Hoc Group on Immigration (started in 1986) with its six working parties, Mutual Assistance Group (MAG, customs cooperation) and other groups are to be brought together under a new Council of Interior and Justice Ministers. The real power, however, will lie with a committee of senior officials comprising the K4 Committee.
This new structure is to be set up under the little debated Title IV of the Maastricht Treaty. This Title provides for cooperation between the EC member states on issues concerning justice and internal affairs covering: the controls at external borders of the EC; immigration and asylum policies; "combatting unauthorised immigration"; drugs; international fraud; judicial cooperation on civil and criminal matters; customs; and police cooperation including the creation of a European Police Office, Europol (Article K.1). Article K.3 determines that cooperation in these areas are to remain intergovernmental (with two exceptions on visa policy where the Commission can take the initiative). This means that the work of the new Council of Ministers and the K4 Committee will remains outside of the democratic control of the European Parliament and that its deliberations will be conducted in secret.
The K4 Committee will have three steering groups, each with a number of working groups. The new structure will be:
Immigration & asylum policy:
working groups on: 1) asylum; 2) immigration policy; 3) visas; 4) control of external frontiers; 5) clearing houses on asylum and immigration (CIREA and CIREFI).
Security law enforcement police and customs:
working groups on: 1) counter terrorism; 2) public order, training, scientific and technical work; 3) combatting serious crime; 4) Europol; 5) customs; 6) drugs.
Judicial cooperation:
two working groups: 1) civil matters; 2) criminal matters.
The K4 Committee will have one full member from each member state and one from the Commission. In practice, the membership of the Committee will be the existing Coordinators of Free Movement (set up in 1988) who wrote the report recommending its creation. The K4 Committee will be based in the Council and its work will be paid for out of the EC budget. The Council is one of the main organisations of the EC representing the 12 member governments. The formal organisations are: the European Commission the European Parliament and the Court of Justice
In addition to the three steering groups and their working parties the Committee will also be responsible for setting up the European Information System (EIS) which will provide an EC-wide computer system covering all areas of policing, law and immigration.
As with the ad hoc groups the deliberations of the K4 Committee will be conducted in secret. Through this process policies are drawn up by senior civil servants, police and immigration officers, customs officials, and internal security service officers. When policies are agreed they are presented to the Council of Ministers and only when they have rubber-stamped them are they made public. The public, press and parliaments of the EC are therefore presented with a fait accompli.
The K4 Committee, unlike the old ad hoc groups, is to be a permanent structure and forms the basis of the European state (see
Statewatching the new Europe: a handbook on the European state, to be published by Statewatch in September).