JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS COUNCIL, FEBRUARY
2007
Letter from Joan Ryan MP, Parliamentary
Under Secretary of State, Home Office to the Chairman
I thought it would be useful if I were to write
to you about the JHA Council on 15 February since it is not possible
for me to make a written statement to the House due to the timing
of the recess.
A key part of the German Presidency is the integration
of the Prum convention into European Union law. Information
sharing between police and law enforcement agencies provides a
vital tool in the investigation, detection and prevention of crime.
It has the potential to aid the fight against cross-border crime
and the detection of individuals, including foreign nationals
who have committed crimes abroad and those who have committed
crimes and travelled abroad to prevent detection. The UK therefore
welcomes the work that the Presidency has done on the transposition
of the Prum Convention into EU law. We continue to have
concerns about article 18 which, as currently drafted, does not
preclude "hot pursuit" and we will continue negotiations
on this article.
Another priority for the Presidency is the Prisoner
Transfer proposal and they will be looking to reach a general
approach. Further work is required on some aspects of the proposal
and the UK has made clear to the Presidency that it remains subject
to domestic parliamentary scrutiny in the meantime. We would expect
political agreement on the text as a whole to follow thereafter.
The UK attaches considerable importance to finalising this measure,
which we believe will add considerable value to existing prisoner
transfer arrangements. We are looking to finalise negotiations
on this proposal as soon as possible so that implementation can
commence and the benefits to Member States and prisoners can take
effect.
On migration the Presidency will table a communication
for discussion to further explore the concept of migration partnerships
as a means of launching an comprehensive relationship with third
countries on migration issues. The Presidency's priority is to
take forward the concept of partnerships with third countries.
Whilst the UK welcomes this initiative, we need to have a flexible
approach to model such agreement on the needs of individual third
countries. We believe that this is a complex area which requires
through examination and we anticipate that the Commission's communications,
published in due course, will be a basis for developing more concrete
proposals.
The Schengen Information System (SIS), SIRENE
and VISION will be discussed under both the main agenda and in
the mixed committee with the aim of ensuring provision of a network
service for these in light of the delay to the implementation
of SIS II and connection of the new Member States to SISOne4All.
The UK's preferred option is an extension of the SISNET network
with S-Testa as a backup option. We are also committed to minimising
any further delays to the implementation of SIS II.
Other items in the mixed committee include SISOne4All
in which the UK is not participating and an update on the rescheduling
of SIS II in light of the implementation of SISOne4All.
Finally in the mixed committee the Presidency
will take the opportunity to update Ministers on the progress
of negotiations on a draft Regulation creating Rapid Border Intervention
Teams (RABITs). Frontex will also be looking to Member States
to contribute to a centralised register of technical assets. The
UK believes that the RABITs proposal is an important concept and
having teams able to respond rapidly to unexpected influxes of
immigration is a positive development. However, a number of important
issues remain to be resolved. On the technical assets side the
UK is looking at contributing human resources for training and
operations as well as other assets such as New Detection Technology
and forgery detection equipment.
There is likely to be a lunch-time discussion
on the proposal for a Council Framework Decision on combating
racism and xenophobia. The Presidency is keen to reach swift agreement
on the Framework Decision and whilst the UK believes it to be
worthwhile, previous experiences have shown this to be a difficult
and contentious dossier. For example, we understand and respect
that some States ban holocaust denial, but there is a consensus
in the UK, across the political spectrum and including from members
of the Jewish community, that this is not an approach that we
should adopt in the UK. Another outstanding issue for the UK is
that we do not support the text on mutual legal assitance proposed
at Article 8(2). We believe that this has now been superseded
by the agreement on the Euorpean Evidence Warrant, which would
govern requests for evidence in relation to racist and xenophobic
crime.
13 February 2007
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