16-17 September: Justice and home affairs informal

Date: 23/09/1999

THE informal meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers in Turku, Finland, was dominated by last-minute preparations for the special summit of Union leaders on internal matters next month. Ministers focused on three topics on which the Finnish presidency hopes to make progress at the Tampere summit: asylum and immigration, fighting cross-border crime and establishing a common judicial area. Before the meeting, Finnish Interior Minister Kari Haekaemies wrote to his colleagues insisting that Tampere must be more than a "mere publicity-oriented restatement of what was already agreed upon in the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Vienna action plan".

IN DISCUSSIONS on the fight against crime, ministers agreed in principle to the idea of setting up a European police academy. Under the plan, a unit of prosecutors and judges would seek to pool information and eventually pursue trans-border prosecutions. In general, however, ministers said EU countries should not seek to harmonise their national systems but instead identify a basic set of criteria and standards for tackling cross-border crime. They also supported the progressive harmonisation of asylum and immigration policies to deal more fairly and efficiently with the thousands of people who seek a safe-haven in the EU every year.

IN REMARKS made on the sidelines at the informal meeting, Finnish Justice Minister Johannes Koskinen said Turkey was far away from meeting the EU's human rights standards. "Turkey in no way fulfils democracy and fundamental rights in this area," he said, referring to Ankara's treatment of the Kurdish minority.