29 October: Justice and Home Affairs Council

Date: 04/11/1999

JUSTICE and home affairs ministers met for the first time since the Tampere 'law and order' summit to discuss the progress made at the high-level meeting. The ministers, most of whom were not present at the EU leaders gathering, welcomed the "significant achievements"made towards the Union's goal of establishing an area of freedom, security and justice, and committed themselves to fully implement the tasks signed up to in Finland.

However, some delegations regretted that the summit had failed to make more progress on asylum and immigration issues, the fight against fraud and a common European justice system. Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino also expressed disappointment that EU leaders had ducked a decision to create a European public prosecutor's office and attacked member states for not supporting the creation of a European refugee fund.

The Finnish presidency presented a paper on the follow-up to Tampere, indicating which member states are to do what and by when. To make sure countries do not renege on their summit commitments, Vitorino also indicated that the Commission would draw up a scoreboard on governments' progress in the home affairs field in time for the next ministerial meeting in December.

Ministers held a lively debate on the Eurodac Convention, which aims to set up an EU database of refugees' fingerprints to prevent 'asylum shopping'. The Council agreed to set up the system in March, but the text has been 'frozen' since the Amsterdam Treaty entered into force because the move to bring Eurodac within the main body of EU law has given rise to 30 reservations. These include what implementing powers the Commission should have and the vexed question of including Gibraltar within the scope of the system. Denmark announced that it would join Eurodac following Ireland and the UK's decision to do so earlier this year.

A REPORT on the progress made so far in negotiations with Iceland and Norway aimed at extending the Dublin Convention on asylum issues to Europe's northernmost countries was discussed by ministers. The Dublin arrangements must be put in place plans before frontier checks with the non-EU Nordic countries are abolished late next year. Given the tight deadline, almost all member states agreed to waive the right for the accord to be ratified by national parliaments.

THE Council approved a report on football hooliganism in the Union in 1997/8. The report concluded that "although current cooperation is assessed very favourably, in some exchanges it leaves room for improvement". Noting that all countries ran the risk of facing sporting violence, the report said it was "extremely important that information be gathered efficiently and passed on promptly".