Questionmarks remain over purpose of special summit

Date: 20/05/1999

By Simon Coss

IF ANYONE should attend a top-level meeting on the Union's justice and home affairs policy, you would think it would be the EU ministers who deal with such matters on a day-to-day basis.

But in a stunning example of twisted Euro-logic, it has been decreed that Europe's interior ministers will not be invited to the Union's special justice and home affairs summit which is due to take place in the northern Finnish city of Tampere in October.

The reason for this is apparently EU protocol, which states that only presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers are allowed to take part in summit meetings.

This means that the showpiece talks designed to demonstrate the Union's cast-iron commitment to tackling issues such as drug trafficking, money laundering, organised crime and fraud will be conducted between people with little 'hands-on' experience of the subjects being discussed. "It is a really rather odd situation," conceded one EU official.

But the qualifications of the participants are not the only thing about this summit which is raising eyebrows.

At present, no one seems entirely sure what will be discussed. This somewhat hazy approach contrasts sharply with the last major meeting of EU leaders devoted to a specific issue: the famous 'jobs summit' in Luxembourg in November 1997.

On that occasion, preparations for the talks got under way almost a year before the meeting and by the time delegates finally arrived in Luxembourg, many of them found themselves reciting phrases such as 'employment guidelines' and 'four-pillar approach' in their sleep.

This is certainly not the case for Tampere. "It is all rather vague," said one EU justice and home affairs official. "The idea is apparently to come up with some sort of political declaration, but it is all rather messy."

To be fair to the German government, which currently chairs all EU meetings, some preliminary efforts have been made to try to draw up an agenda for Tampere.

German officials recently conducted a whistle-stop tour of EU capitals during which they sounded out national governments on possible subjects for debate. Unfortunately, the results of this exercise were not particularly encouraging.

" Each country stressed the points to which it attached particular importance," said one official, who added that if all the issues raised were included on the Tampere agenda, the summit would last considerably longer than the day-and-a-half planned for it.

But despite the current confusion surrounding the aims of the meeting, there are one or two issues which are almost certain to be on the table.

One will be the presentation of a report by a panel of experts on the problems of EU asylum and immigration policy. When Union leaders asked the high-level group to prepare the study last year, they stressed that it must be ready in time for the special summit.

Participants are also likely to debate the European Commission's plans for achieving the Amsterdam Treaty's goal of creating an 'area of freedom, security and justice' within the Union.

But it is hard to see what fresh initiatives could emerge from the meeting, given that the EU has already agreed on an action plan to put the Commission's proposals into practice.

Other ideas which might be discussed include a plan floated earlier this year by French Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou to transform the Union's police agency Europol into a sort of Euro-FBI to be backed up by a European public prosecutor's office.

However, before Guigou's proposals make it on to the agenda, the French minister - whom, it should not be forgotten, will not be in Tampere - will need to convince sceptical counterparts, notably in the UK, of the wisdom of such a scheme.

In reality, Tampere is likely to prove another occasion for EU leaders to make a series of lofty-sounding but ultimately empty declarations.

It will also, of course, ensure that the Finns, who will chair the talks as part of their first-ever EU presidency, will be able to boast of hosting two Union summits.

Preview of a special European Council summit on justice and home affairs issues to be held in Tampere, October 1999.