Prior to the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, the Federal Minister of the Interior gave a positive report of the progress made so far under the German Council Presidency. On Wednesday, Federal Minster Wolfgang Schäuble invited the Berlin-based ambassadors of the EU Member States and the candidate countries to a discussion about the domestic policy issues pursued by the EU Council Presidency.
With regard to the mid-term review Interior Minister Schäuble said:
“We have successfully concluded the first half of the German Council Presidency. With regard to domestic policy issues the fact that in our Work Programme we gave priority to the efficient use of existing tools and the enhancement of practical cooperation has proved extremely helpful. Germany, together with its partners in the trio presidency – Portugal and Slovenia – has moved the expansion of the common area of freedom, security and justice forward, in accordance with the Presidency’s motto, "Living Europe safely".
Following a successful initial orientation debate at the Informal Meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers held in Dresden on 14 – 16 January, we managed to achieve political agreement at the first Council Meeting in Brussels on 15 February with regard to transposing the main provisions of the Treaty of Prüm (named after the town in the German Eifel region) into the legal framework of the European Union. This means that in future all 27 EU Member States will benefit from the considerable value added by the Treaty. It allows Member States to grant one another automated access to vehicle registration data, DNA analysis data and fingerprint data. Provisions will also be made to govern the sharing of data required to clamp down on terrorists and travelling offenders. The Treaty also allows Member States to carry out joint patrols or to grant one another police assistance during major events. In this context, police officers of other Member States may be invested with sovereign powers.
As regards counter-terrorism, we have made considerable progress regarding our proposals that Member States share their efforts to monitor and analyze Internet publications by terrorist organizations (“check the web”). Europol, for instance, will soon set up a related information portal.
The Protocols Amending the Europol Convention have been ratified by all Member States and will take effect in a few days. Germany backs their implementation with vigour. The Amending Protocols seek to adjust Europol to the requirements of modern crime control and to noticeably increase its efficiency. For example, Europol may in future take part in Joint Investigation Teams set up by EU Member States, and may request them to start investigations. Furthermore, Europol may involve experts from third countries in analysis groups set up by the EU Member States at Europol. This is of particular importance when it comes to counter-terrorism cooperation with the United States, to name but one example.
The German Council Presidency has held initial and targeted negotiations concerning the transposition of Europol into the legal framework of the EU. Most importantly, Europol’s competence is to be extended to cover serious cross-border crime, without these having to be attributable to organized crime. This includes serious disturbances of public safety caused by travelling violent offenders and hooligans.
With regard to the accession to the Schengen Information System (SISone4all) of the new Member States which joined the EU on 1 May 2004, the German Presidency helped to keep the tight schedule on track. The fact that the Schengen search system has been extended to cover the new Member States enables us to remove checks at the borders between and with them at the end of 2007.
As regards the protection of the common external borders and the fight against illegal migration, broad consensus has been reached between Member States and the European Parliament on the “Regulation establishing a mechanism for the creation of Rapid Border Intervention Teams”. The proposed Rapid Border Intervention Teams would be composed of experts from the Member States and would at short notice be sent by Frontex to those Member States which are particularly affected by illegal migration. The new Regulation would also make it possible for the first time in the framework of European cooperation for guest officers to be granted executive powers within a team led by the Member State hosting the operation. This would allow the teams’ border police officers to be deployed even more effectively on the ground than to date.
Moreover, the German EU Council Presidency gave strong support to Frontex in establishing centralised records of technical equipment, also known as the “toolbox”. The agency will therefore soon be able to coordinate requests for and offers of border-police equipment by Member States. The equipment registered in the toolbox includes surveillance aircraft, helicopters, patrol boats as well as border surveillance and management equipment.
At the Informal Meeting of EU Sports Ministers in Stuttgart on 12 and 13 March, participants discussed the relation between sport and economics, sport and violence, and integration and sport. The Member States also used the meeting to express their expectations regarding the EU White Paper on Sport, which is currently being prepared by the Commission. The Presidency’s initiative to forge a network of national anti-doping organizations within the EU was welcomed by the delegations. In addition, all participants decided to study the economic effects of sport, its role in national economies, its dynamics and, above all, its impact on the labour market more closely. To this end, an EU-wide sport satellite account is to be introduced which provides information about the percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) accounted for by sport and the number of sport employees on the basis of scientific parameters.
An achievement of the German Council Presidency that deserves particular mention is the decision to set up an Informal High-Level Group, which was taken after the first round of discussions at the Informal Meeting of Ministers in Dresden at the Council meeting on 15 February.The task of this group will be to give an impetus to European home-affairs policy at an early stage, with a view to preparing an instrument to replace the Hague Programme, which will cease to be valid after 2009. The group should also discuss possibilities to increase the efficiency of the Council and to improve or facilitate existing EU legislation. It should also identify areas where cooperation in the EU could be improved and areas where Member States should be given greater room for manoeuvre. The group will consist of Vice-President Frattini, the six interior ministers of the current and upcoming trio presidencies (Germany, Portugal and Slovenia as well as France, the Czech Republic and Sweden), a representative of the following trio presidency (Spain, Belgium and Hungary), as well as experts from individual Member States, as needed. All interested parties are invited to submit proposals to the group. The group intends to submit a report by autumn 2008 before a successor programme for the Hague Programme is formally proposed, which should serve as a basis for discussions on this issue. The first two meetings of the group are planned in May and June, still under the German Presidency.
