PRESS RELEASE : Brussels, 08/05/03

The second Justice and Home affairs Council under the Greek Presidency took place in Brussels today. The Greek Minister Mr. Petsalnikos presided on issues of Justice and the Greek Minister of Public Order, Mr. Chrysochoides chaired on issues of Home Affairs. In the beginning of the sessions both Greek Ministers welcomed the participation of the Ministers from the ten acceding countries who assisted for the first time to the works JHA Council.

In its morning session the Council examined issues relating to Home Affairs:

• the Proposal for a Council Directive on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals and stateless persons as refugees or as persons who otherwise need international protection
• the Proposal for a Council Directive concerning the status of third-country nationals who are long-term residents
• the follow-up to Seville in view of Thessaloniki (integrated management of external borders, combating illegal immigration, repatriation, asylum, cooperation with third countries)
• the appointment of two Europol Deputy Directors

On the fist issue, the proposal for a Council Directive aims at creating a new international protection based on the existing international and community obligations and on the existing practices of the Member States, distinguishing the two complementary categories, the one of refugees and the one of persons who otherwise need subsidiary protection. The proposal includes provisions for minimum rights and benefits for the above-mentioned categories.

Even though it wasn't possible to reach a complete agreement in all "open" issues, significant progress was achieved, nevertheless, on several very important issues.

The Council agreed, taking into consideration the obligations of the Member States resulting from the Geneva Convention on Refugees, not to grant the status of refugee to persons who after having left their country of origin, "create" the reasons which made them leave from their country. The Council also decided that public order concerns could be added to the list of legitimate reasons for not granting the status of refugee.

The major remaining issues of disagreement between Member States concerned the extension of benefits to the members of the family (some Member States argue that the members of the family should have the same benefits with the beneficiary of the protection, and others support the extent of the benefits to the members of the family must be left to the discretion of the Members States) and the issue of access to the labour market for the beneficiaries of subsidiary protection (some Members States wish to have the full and complete discretion to determine the conditions of access to the labour market, whereas other Member States consider that this right should be defined by the Directive itself).

The Council referred to COREPER, for further examination, the outstanding issues, since today's discussions demonstrated that a global compromise could be achieved during the next session of the JHA Council in June.

On the second subject of discussion, the Directive concerning the status of third country nationals who are long-term residents the Council reached agreement on the first section of the proposal. More precisely it agreed that the Directive should not cover refugees and persons who qualify for subsidiary protection status and adopted a Joint Declaration of the Council and the European Commission, in which it is stated that the latter will submit a specific proposal for a Council Directive on the acquisition of third country national status by these two categories.

Moreover, the Council gave the necessary political guidelines to the relevant Council committees, in order to enable them to proceed to the resolution of the other outstanding issues of the Directive.

On the third subject, concerning the follow up to the Seville Conclusions, the President Mr Chryssochoides has presented the progress of the practical implementation of all issues related to the combat against illegal immigration, the integrated management of borders, the return policies and the cooperation with third countries in the fiield of migration.

The Greek Minister, pointed out that whereas there has been significant achievements in some issues (ex adoption of Dublin 2 regulation, family reunification, conclusion of the examination of Draft Council Conclusions on Migration and Development), in some other issues progress is still lagging behind and urged his colleagues and the European Commission for increased co-operation in order to ensure their rapid conclusion until the European Council of Thessaloniki.

More specifically, Mr Chryssochoides informed his colleagues that the Greek Presidency intends to submit, in co-operation with the Commission, Draft Council Conclusions on the issues of Burden Sharing for the management of external borders, the overall inadequacy of Community resources available to JHA, the establishment of an evaluation mechanism for the co-operation of third countries on migration issues and, finally, the deepening of operational co-operation among Member States (joint operations, pilot projects, common unit, immigration liaison officers (ILO), in view of achieving the ultimate goal of a common management of external borders of the Union.

Commissioner Vitorino presented briefly the results of the Visa Information System (VIS) study  pointing the economic magnitudes involved, which the Council will have to consider, for the functioning of the system in the central level (CVIS) and the national level (NVIS).

Finally the Council, following a proposal of the Management Board of Europol, approved the appointment of two Europol Deputy Directors.

In the margins of the Council, the Ministers for Home Affairs signed an important protocol amending the Convention on the use of information technology for customs purposes, by the creation of a customs files identification database, (FIDE), a work which was completed during the Greek Presidency.

During its afternoon session the Council examined the following issues on Justice cooperation:

1. 1.The draft framework decision of the Council for the application of the principle of mutual recognition of financial penalties
2. 2.The draft agreements between the EU and the USA on extradition and judicial cooperation on penal matters
3. 3.Negotiations with Switzerland for its participation to the "Schengen acquis" and for measures related to asylum

On the first topic, the Council reached today a political agreement after two years of intensive discussions. This agreement enables the competent authorities of every Member State to recognize directly and take all the necessary measures of implementation for every decision on financial penalties related to a penal offence taken by another Member State

This recognition takes place after the decision is being transmitted by the authority of the issuing Member State. It was also agreed that recognition does not necessarily involve double incrimination for the offences of the corresponding catalogue of the European arrest warrant, as well as for certain other offences like road-traffic offences, smuggling, offences related to intellectual property and hooliganism (athletic events).

In addition, restrictive reasons for refusing execution of the request are provided, as well as the possibility of the executing State, in certain cases, to reduce the imposed penalty. At the same time it is explicitly provided that the decisions for payment of financial penalties must be respect the provisions of the European Convention of Human Rights as well as to the Fundamental Rights and Principles which are recognized by the article 6 of the TEU.

In order to secure this provision, it is provided that, if an issue is being raised of violation of fundamental rights and principles of the article 6 of the TEU, every Member State can oppose the recognition and execution of the decision after consultation among the competent authorities.

This framework decision marks an important progress in relation to the application of the principle of mutual recognition of decisions in penal law, an important complement of judicial cooperation. At the same time it reinforces the trust among the judicial authorities of Member States and formulates conditions of equal treatment of the citizens of the Union.

In relation to the second topic -judicial cooperation with the USA- delegations expressed their satisfaction on the content of the proposed texts as they have been formulated up-to-date and on the general handling by the Greek Presidency. It was accepted that further contacts should be pursued in order to take a decision to sign the Agreement in the JHA Council, next June.

Finally, the Council discussed for the first time the topic of negotiations with Switzerland for its participation to the "Schengen acquis", in the context of a wider cooperation of the EU with Switzerland. The main issue related to mutual legal assistance for offences related to taxation (fraud). During the discussion the interest of the Union was reflected for an effective and speedy advancement of negotiations. The Presidency concluded that a comprehensive examination of all issues is required so that a final decision can be taken with a full view of the relevant parameters, without damaging the integrity of the Schengen system.