Dutch block approval of Eurojust and finger-print database

Date: 14/12/00

By John Shelley

APPROVAL of two key planks of the EU's plan to fight crime and illegal immigration has been postponed again because of 11th-hour objections from the Netherlands.

Plans to set up a European prosecutors office (Eurojust) and a database of asylum seekers' finger prints (Eurodac) had seemed certain to be endorsed formally this month. But the Dutch withdrew their support because the plans had not yet been passed by its parliament. Agreement on the controversial dossiers was supposed to be the culmination of months of work by the French presidency. Now Paris faces the possibility that approval could be delayed until next year. "The French are extremely annoyed," said one EU diplomat.

Insiders say getting the controversial plans approved by the Dutch parliament should be a technicality, and France still hopes it can usher in the measures before the end of its presidency on 31 December.

Detailed proposals for Eurodac were first tabled in 1999, but arguments between member states and the European Parliament over its scope, as well as a power struggle with the Commission over who should manage the database, made it impossible to forge a consensus until now.

Eurojust, designed to complement Europe's criminal intelligence agency Europol, has proved just as controversial, with member states still wrangling over how wide-ranging its powers should be. Initially, it is planned to be little more than a forum for meetings between top prosecutors and magistrates from each member state.

Approval of two key planks of the EU's plan to fight crime and illegal immigration has been postponed again because of 11th-hour objections from the Netherlands.