Commission disgruntled by justice law delays

This week (3 July) the European Commission published its assessment of progress made last year in the area of justice and home affairs.

While highlighting some areas of progress, the Commission is, on balance, unhappy with the speed of adoption by member states of its legislative proposals and the implementation of laws at national level. But recent agreement on a new EU treaty could provide the solution to some of the Commission’s problems.

The Commission’s assessment is broken down into two themes: the extent to which legislation passed at EU level has been implemented at national level and how plans put forward by the Commission have fared in the Council of Ministers.

On the first theme, the Commission has shown that member states, and some in particular, have been sluggish in implementing legislation agreed at EU level. "I am not satisfied at the level of national transposition," said Franco Frattini, the commissioner for justice, freedom and security.

Frattini highlighted a previous delay in the implementation of a framework decision on combating terrorism, which although by now fully transposed by all member states, is "not always complete".

He also referred to a framework decision on combating the exploitation of children and child pornography which has yet to be implemented by Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and the UK, despite a deadline for transposition in January last year. But several other pieces of legislation are still partially or totally awaiting implementation by member states. Some member states are bigger offenders than others, with Malta, Greece, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Germany and Italy among those yet to adopt several pieces of legislation.

The number of cases the Commission has taken against member states for non-implementation is on the increase. In 2005 there were 100 cases, with 154 in 2006 and some 170 cases predicted for 2007.

Part of the problem is the sheer volume of legislation coming from the Commission in the area of justice and home affairs. Frattini said that "almost one in five of all major Commission initiatives concerns justice, freedom and security". Parliaments can struggle with such an amount of laws, which often do not get the same priority as vital national legislation.

Some parliaments also have lengthy procedures and tough methods for scrutinising bills before they get passed. This area of legislation can be costly if the correct kind of national law is not adopted. In 2005 the German constitutional court struck down the European arrest warrant, a move that some have blamed on the way the law was written into the German statute book. The ruling almost put the entire arrest warrant system across the EU into jeopardy.

Because of these issues the Commission cannot expect any speeding up of the time it takes for member states to adopt the national laws transposing EU regulations or directives.

But the Commission can expect considerable improvements in the speed with which member states reach agreements on EU laws in this area. While currently progress on agreeing laws on fundamental rights is "generally satisfactory" and progress on civil law proposals has been "remarkable", judicial co-operation in criminal matters "has been slow and several actions delayed", according to the Commission’s report.

Slower progress on proposals such as these caused the overall percentage of laws passed at EU level to fall: from 62% in 2005 to 53% last year.

But things are looking up. Agreement on the broad content of a new treaty kept alive much of the rejected constitution’s elements on justice and home affairs, which means vetoes will be removed from many areas. The introduction of qualified majority voting will mean speedier adoption of Commission proposals. With an opt-out granted to the UK and possibly Ireland, the Commission can also expect less opposition from two of its more trenchant critics.

The Commission will also be able to take member states to court for failure to implement EU laws in a broader number of areas, as the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice will be extended, according to the agreement on the new treaty reached at the 21-23 June summit. Under current treaty rules, the court only has limited jurisdiction over justice and home affairs. "These changes mean that member states, the Parliament and Commission can work together to take quicker and more accountable decisions," said Frattini.

Frattini can only hope that member states will not backtrack on these promises during negotiations to fine-tune the treaty, which will start at the end of the month.

This week (3 July) the European Commission published its assessment of progress made last year in the area of justice and home affairs.