3 December Justice and Home Affairs Council

Date: 10/12/1998

THE principal point on a packed agenda was how best to put the justice and home affairs aspects of the Amsterdam Treaty into practice. Ministers held an open discussion on an action plan drawn up by the Council and the European Commission which aims to increase the free movement of people within the EU's borders, provide more security and guarantee citizen's better access to justice. Among the plan's priorities are the fight against the trafficking of human beings, the development of Europol, strengthening judicial cooperation and combating organised crime.

MINISTERS welcomed the plan, but stressed that it was essential to implement all its provisions fully before any future enlargement of the Union. The only major point of discord was the timetable for agreeing measures to ensure that the burden of coping with influxes of refugees is shared out fairly between member states, with some calling for a two-year deadline while others wanted five years. In the end, ministers fudged the issue by calling for measures to be adopted “as quickly as possible”.

AGREEMENT was reached on setting up a computerised system for registering asylum seekers' fingerprints - the so- called Eurodac convention. The agreement is aimed at preventing asylum seekers applying for refuge in more than one member state. However, ministers disagreed over extending the rules requiring the compulsory fingerprinting of asylum seekers to illegal immigrants. Aside from a problem in defining illegal immigration, some member states objected to the Commiss-ion taking on administrative responsibility for Eurodac.

MINISTERS held a long discussion on a convention on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters. Most of the problems have been ironed out, but the UK's insistence that it should be allowed to tap the phones of suspected criminals in other member states without informing national authorities first remains a sticking point. Other ministers continue to insist on the principle of prior notification.

A JOINT plan to tackle child pornography on the Internet was agreed. Member states committed themselves to stepping up police cooperation to wipe out such pornography on the Internet and said they would introduce legally binding measures to tackle the problem if this proved insufficient.