At the meeting of the European Parliamentary Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) in Brussels on Wednesday, 24 January 2007, the Federal Minister of the Interior, Dr Wolfgang Schäuble, presented the home affairs policy work programme, “Living Europe Safely”, for the German EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2007.
The successful Informal Meeting of EU Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs in Dresden from 14 to 16 January 2007 lent further weight to the priorities of the German presidency. Following its very positive reception in Dresden, the plan to improve cross-border police cooperation by transposing the Prüm Treaty into the legal framework of the European Union will take on outstanding significance in the coming weeks.
One specific result of the informal meeting of ministers in Dresden was boosting further development of European home affairs policy after 2009, when the Hague Programme ends. A high-level advisory group will be formed, made up of the vice president of the European Commission, the six interior ministers of the current and upcoming trio presidencies (Germany, Portugal and Slovenia, as well as France, the Czech Republic and Sweden) and research experts from individual Member States. Each Member State is invited to submit input to the group. The group will report to the ministers responsible for home affairs on the progress of their discussions in a suitable form and at regular intervals.
This effort is to be based on the highest possible level of transparency. The group is to draft recommendations for European home affairs policy starting in 2010, after the Hague Programme ends, for options to increase the Council’s efficiency and to improve or simplify existing EU regulations. In addition, the group is supposed to address the issue of cooperation at EU level, i.e., in which fields would greater cooperation be beneficial, and in which fields should more discretion be given to the Member States. However, the high-level group is not intended to address issues of primary law, decision-making or other matters that might affect the further treatment of the EU Constitutional Treaty. The group is to present its report in autumn 2008, so that there will be sufficient time to incorporate its reflections into the formal discussion process for the successor to the Hague Programme.
In Brussels, Federal Minister Schäuble stressed, “Even though we have achieved a great deal, we continue to face major challenges in Europe today. International terrorism, organized crime and illegal migration increasingly threaten our security. Especially in these areas, citizens expect Europe to provide solutions. This requires close cooperation between the presidency, Member States, the European Commission and European Parliament. If the responsible authorities in the EU take decisive, joint action, we will be able to strengthen our liberty and security while gaining popular support for the common European project. Europe’s citizens need to feel that Europe provides added value for them.Against this background, the Federal Ministry of the Interior has chosen ‘Living Europe Safely’ as its motto during the German EU Presidency. It stands for the challenge we have set ourselves and for citizens’ expectations of Europe. Our policy focuses on the interests of citizens. And this is why we also intend during our presidency to push for greater progress on practical cooperation in the field of European home affairs.”
Work programme “Living Europe Safely”
The Federal Ministry of the Interior’s work programme for the German EU Council Presidency encompasses the following issues: the fight against international terrorism and cross-border crime; joint management of migration; cooperation with third countries on domestic affairs; cooperation among public administrations in Europe; promotion of integration and intercultural dialogue; and shaping the future of European home affairs policy.
With regard to fighting international terrorism and cross-border crime, Europol in particular needs to be strengthened. To this end, the programme calls for transposing the Europol Convention into the EU’s legal framework.In the future, Europol should be responsible for fighting all forms of serious cross-border crime, such as a serial killer active in more than one Member State or major disruptions to internal security caused by hooligans. Another important goal is the practical implementation of the three amending protocols to the current Europol Convention. For example, the second amending protocol would allow Europol to participate in joint investigative teams put together by Member State police forces.
A special priority for Germany is improving police cooperation between Member States. Criminals must not have a chance to escape prosecution simply by crossing a border. This is why Germany will work to have the provisions of the treaty on fighting terrorism, cross-border crime and illegal migration, which was signed in the German border town of Prüm by seven Member States (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Spain) on 27 May 2005, transposed into EU law. This would give all Member States mutual access to DNA and fingerprint data and vehicle registries, for example, and would allow them to ask other Member States for police reinforcements in case of major international sport competitions or serious accidents. Promising results have been achieved since the initial implementation phase, which demonstrates that the Prüm Treaty contributes significantly to strengthening internal security in Europe.
The German presidency’s work programme also calls for closer collaboration on monitoring and analysing websites used by terrorist organizations (“Check the Web”), as well as better protection for critical infrastructures against terrorist attack.
For the new Member States, closing down the last checkpoint on the internal border symbolizes EU membership. Removing such barriers helps people in the new Member States experience Europe. This is why Germany finds it important for people to be able to travel soon between the old and new Member States without having to undergo border checks.The prerequisite for opening the borders is for all Member States to be connected to the common Schengen Information System (SIS). This system allows police throughout Europe to identify persons sought on arrest warrants or banned from entering the EU, as well as stolen vehicles. The German Presidency is therefore in favour of introducing “SIS One 4 All”, which would give the Member States which joined on 1 May 2004 access to the system as quickly as possible. At the same time, Germany will continue to support the swift introduction of the second-generation Schengen Information System, SIS II, to replace SIS One 4 Alland add important security features, such as the capacity to store fingerprints and photographs.
With regard to the joint management of migration, the work programme in particular calls for significantly strengthening the European border management agency FRONTEX. Minister Schäuble therefore called today on the members of the LIBE Committee to work with the Council and Commission on adopting and implementing the FRONTEX amending regulation, which allows for the creation of rapid border intervention teams consisting of officers of the national border guards of Member States to be deployed where urgent action is needed to deal with illegal migration. Such teams are intended in particular to assist the southern Member States; starting in the spring, these countries are likely to face another large influx of African migrants, many of whom risk their lives in small boats trying to enter the European Union.
In addition, to fight illegal migration and visa fraud, the programme calls for further progress on reforming the common visa law by means of a “visa code” and for creating the conditions for even closer cooperation among the consulates of the Schengen partners. The German Presidency will also work to introduce the common Visa Information System (VIS), which makes it possible to record and compare data of visa applicants, including fingerprints and photographs. The VIS should therefore become a key element in fighting illegal migration and “visa shopping” as well as international terrorism and organized crime.
Germany will also work to improve returns of third-country nationals required to leave the country and to increase practical cooperation among Member States’ asylum authorities.
The work programme also proposes encouraging circular migration as an instrument of migration and development policy, while respecting national sovereignty and differing conditions in national labour markets. In Dresden, the EU ministers were largely in favour of this proposal. All the interior ministers expressed their intent to work closely on migration issues with the countries of origin and transit at the EU’s eastern and southern borders. To do so, they will look into the possibility of partnership agreements between individual Member States and third countries regarding migration and development. They will examine how best to take advantage of the positive effects of circular and temporary migration between the EU and third countries.
With regard to cooperation between the EU and third countries (external dimension), the work programme emphasizes that the distinctions between domestic and foreign security are disappearing and that threats are often rooted outside the EU. For this reason, the Member States must work even more closely together on external relations. Maintaining a dialogue with its neighbours, with the United States, Russia and other third countries lies in the basic security interest of the EU. In particular, the strategically important transatlantic relations need to be strengthened. Challenges such as fighting international terrorism affect the US and Europe equally and can be dealt with only by working together.
With regard to strengthening administrative cooperation, Germany considers it very important for the Member States’ public administrations to work closely together also on home affairs.Efficient administration oriented on the public’s needs, stronger cooperation among the national anti-doping agencies, data protection and greater transparency for the costs of European statistics all play a special role.
A significant aim of the German Presidency is to promote integration and intercultural dialogue in the EU.Europe today is home to 64 million migrants. In order to live together in peace, it is important that all acknowledge and accept our shared democratic values. The situation of immigrants is not the same in all Member States, but integration and intercultural dialogue concern all of us. This is why the German Presidency will work to promote them at the European level.
Additional information:
The work programme of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, along with much more information about the German EU Presidency, is available at the presidency website www.eu2007.de and at www.bmi.bund.de .
