(EU) EU/JUSTICE/HOME AFFAIRS: IN ORDER TO MAKE THEIR WORK MORE EFFECTIVE, MINISTERS WILL CONCENTRATE THEIR WORKS ON TRUE PRIORITIES: ASYLUM- IMMIGRATION, TEMPORARY PROTECTION AND FIGHT AGAINST ORGANISED CRIME

Stockholm, 0810212001 (Agence Europe) - The EU Minister for Justice and Home Affairs began their informal works this Thursday 8 February in Stockholm under the Presidency of Thomas Bodstrom (Justice) and Maj-Inger Klingvall (Migration-Asylum policy), with a discussion over the working-method to adopt to fulfil the mission that was entrusted in them by the Tampere European Council, in October 1999. We are presently mid-way through the implementation phase of Tampere, since a new summit should broach the issue in at least one year, in order to assess the progress achieved, noted the Ministers. In Stockholm, they discussed how to improve their working methods, in a spirit of transparency, and which priorities to give to different tasks included in the Tampere scoreboard on the creation of a area of freedom, security and justice.

The Stockholm debate enabled in particular to give an impetus to the work and to put a finger to certain weaknesses. The Ministers noted a certain delay and warned against the danger of scattering, f that the Council should limit itself to issues requiring a decision of a policy guidelines. The priorities adopted are asylum and immigration policy, temporary protection (in terms of asylum) and the fight against organised crime (trafficking of human beings, sanctions against carriers). Ministers stressed in this context the need to take into account the interests of the countries of origin and of the countries of destination.

In addition, the ministers noted that cooperation under the third pillar is developing in a more "Community" way with the Commission playing a greater role. They insisted on the need to have the transposition situation of decisions by Member States appear on the scoreboard to ensure that this transposition is done in a homogenous manner. Finally, they stressed it was a matter of urgency to fight effectively against crime, and to make decisive progress regarding Eurojust, Europol and the other judicial cooperation instruments.

1 During his speech, European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino compared the "effectiveness of our work to the history of the bottle that is half empty and half full. If one looks at the past, it was not very good, but if one looks at the future, it is not so bad. We must get used to working together and assess the progress under Belgian Presidency", he said.