28-29 November Justice and Home Affairs Council

Date: 05/12/1996

THE production, sale and distribution of child pornography will be made illegal throughout the EU, following agreement on a joint action against trafficking in human beings and the sexual exploitation of children. Justice ministers also agreed to take extraterritorial jurisdiction over sex tourists, penalising EU citizens who commit paedophile offences abroad. But member states may retain the dual criminality requirement - of prosecution only where the alleged offence is criminal both at home and in the country where it took place - which means that there will be no obligation on them to change domestic laws. They will also review national legislation on illegal human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children, to facilitate concerted EU-level action.

PLANS to align laws combating drug use and trafficking received political endorsement, despite resistance from the Netherlands. The joint action commits member states to cooperate in the fight against both drug trafficking and addiction, with ministers undertaking to bring their legislation closer together. But nothing would bind the Netherlands to abandon its approach to drug addiction, including acceptance of coffee shops as soft drug outlets.

MINISTERS also agreed a host of other measures against illegal drugs, including a resolution that serious illicit drug trafficking should receive the most severe custodial sentences available. Resolutions calling for improved coordination to combat drug tourism and the illicit cultivation of drugs, and between police and customs officers, were adopted. A joint action will improve cooperation between customs authorities and business organisations, and the European Drugs Unit (EDU) will set up a 'drug purity' system.

PROTOCOLS determining the role of the European Court of Justice in the fraud and customs information system conventions was signed, opening the way for national parliaments to ratify them. The protocols allow member states to choose the option of ECJ preliminary jurisdiction only if they wish to.

CENTRAL and eastern European ministers debated cooperation against drug trafficking, and endorsed a 1995 resolution on witness protection. They accepted the need to mobilise liaison officers in the EU and CEEC countries to improve cooperation against organised crime.

A TOTAL of 28 million ecu was set aside to finance initiatives, including 6.5 million ecu for the EDU to gather information on illegal human trafficking, 7 million ecu for closer links between magistrates and 4 million ecu for the detection of false documents.