{"change_dates":[],"dossier":{"amendments":[],"changes":{"2014-11-10T01:49:30":[{"data":[{"body":"EC","commission":[{"Commissioner":"FRATTINI Franco","DG":{"title":"Justice","url":"http://ec.europa.eu/justice/"}}],"date":"2005-10-12T00:00:00","docs":[{"celexid":"CELEX:52005DC0491:EN","text":["
PURPOSE: to\n present a strategy on the external dimension of the area of freedom, security\n and justice.
CONTENT: the\n European Commission has prepared this Communication in response to the Hague\n Programme, which calls on the EU to adopt by the end of 2005, a “strategy on the external dimension of the area of freedom, security and justices.”
The purpose of the strategy is two-fold: firstly, to contribute to\n the successful establishment of the internal area of freedom, security and\n justice by creating a secure external environment, and secondly to
advance the EU’s external relations objectives by promoting the\n rule of law, democratic values and sound institutions.
Securing\n internal security depends heavily on securing external security and it is\n this challenge which the proposed Strategy seeks to address. External threats\n challenging internal security are numerous and have been identified as:
- \n Terrorist attacks akin to those conducted in Madrid and London.
- \n Organised crime – money laundering, drugs\n trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking.
- \n Illegal immigration.
- \n Failing, unstable, governments
- \n Weak cross-border commercial transactions.
According to\n the Commission’s Communication, the only way to address these pernicious\n threats is through the establishment of a coherent and comprehensive strategy\n that engages third-countries. The proposed strategy would be centred on a\n number of core issues and guided by a set of policy principles. The\n political priorities identified are:
- \n Human Rights: The EU should continue in its\n efforts to promote human rights in third-countries. Support should be given\n to third-country judiciaries in order to instil impartiality and the\n importance of upholding human rights.
- \n Good governance: The EU should strengthen law\n enforcement; strengthen EU-third country co-operation on common security\n threats; fight corruption; and promote transparency alongside democratic\n accountability.
- \n Migration, asylum and border management: The\n EU should offer support to third-countries in their migration management\n policies and their refugee protection policies; support operational border\n management initiatives; help enhance document security; seek to prevent illegal\n immigration; ensure the return of illegal migrants.
- \n Fight against terrorism: The EU should provide\n third countries with assistance in institutional building; it should work\n with third countries to address terrorist recruitment and financing; it should\n support the UN and build upon the EU’s relationship with the US in order to enhance co-operation efforts.
- \n Organised crime: The EU should support\n institutional capacity and develop operational co-operation.
The principles\n guiding the political priorities include, in summary: geographic\n prioritisation (for example, adopting a more comprehensive approach towards\n candidate countries and neighbourhood countries, whilst offering more\n specific, focus driven, actions with other third countries); differentiation\n (recognising the need for a tailored approach to the external challenges\n facing the EU’s security and not simply a “one size fits all” approach).\n Other principles guiding the EU should be: flexibility; cross-pillar\n co-ordination and benchmarking.
The EU has, at\n its disposal, a number of policy instruments to help enact this strategy.\n They include bi-lateral agreements, the EU’s enlargement and pre-accession\n process; the European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plans; regional\n co-operation, individual agreements; operational co-operation; institution\n building and twinning; development policy and external aid.
Underpinning\n the strategy is the need to promote the rule of law in third countries.\n Unstable, undemocratic and failing countries export the kind of threats\n outlined above thereby jeopardising the EU’s establishment of an area of\n security justice and freedom. In following the proposed strategy on securing\n external security, the EU should be well placed to stem the import of\n threats, which undermine its internal security.
\nThe Council\n took note of a Presidency report on the implementation of the “Strategy for\n the External Dimension of the JHA: Global Freedom, Security and Justice”\n covering the year 2006.
The strategy\n calls for the establishment of a partnership with third countries in the\n field of JHA, which includes strengthening the rule of law and promoting\n respect for human rights as well as international obligations. This is to be\n achieved through greater co-operation on:
- migration\n and asylum;
- border\n management and the effective control of borders;
- law\n enforcement co-operation on combating terrorism as well as the fight against\n organised crime,
- including\n trafficking in human beings, money laundering and the fight against\n corruption;
- judicial\n co-operation in civil and criminal matters; and assisting the judiciary and\n judicial reform of third countries.
The report\n focuses on:
- an overall\n assessment of the effectiveness of political, technical and operational\n co-operation with third countries on JHA issues in the previous period;
- specific\n suggestions for geographical and/or thematic priorities for future action;\n and
- options for\n measures, whether political or technical to improve co-operation with\n specific countries and regions.
\nIn adopting the report draft by Bogdan KLICH\n (EPP-ED, PL), the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs\n approved the report on an area of freedom, security and justice: Strategy on the\n external dimension, Action Plan implementing the Hague programme.
The report presents the following list of\n recommendations to the Council and Commission for their consideration:
1) Improving the democratic\n accountability in the external dimension of the AFSJ: the committee urges the Council and the Commission \n to:
- keep Parliament regularly informed of\n the negotiations on agreements dealing with the AFSJ;
- to activate the passerelle clause\n in Article 42 TEU, simultaneously with the constitutional process going\n forward, which would bring the provisions concerning police and judicial\n cooperation on criminal matters within the Community framework, leading to\n greater efficiency, transparency and accountability, as well as democratic\n and judicial control. It therefore urges the Commission to submit to the\n Council before October 2007 a formal proposal for a decision activating\n Article 42 TEU;
- to consider the establishment of the\n office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and an external diplomatic service;
- to\n expedite in particular the adoption of framework decisions with regard to the\n storage, use and exchange of information on criminal convictions and to\n the codification of procedural rights in criminal proceedings throughout\n the EU.
2) As far as the main objectives of\n the Strategy are concerned: the committee\n welcomes the principles set out in the Strategy, especially the need for a\n partnership with third countries to tackle common problems and meet shared\n policy objectives. It recalls the need to rationalise the work of the EU\n institutions and the use of existing instruments, and to coordinate the\n actions of the Member States and actions at EU level in order to ensure a\n coherent and effective response in the EU's relations with third countries\n and to avoid duplication. Parliament is called upon to improve the coherence\n of its external relations activities and to streamline activities pertaining\n to human rights, democratic governance and the rule of law in third countries\n and in the external dimension of security. It is essential to improve\n cross-pillar coordination between, and to avoid the duplication of, the\n various instruments belonging to AFSJ, the European Security and Defence\n Policy (ESDP), the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the\n Community. It stresses that the effectiveness of such coordination should be\n subject to constant review by Parliament and welcomes the steps taken towards\n improved coherence in integrated civil-military cooperation of the ESDP,\n particularly in the field of crisis management.
The planning process of ESDP operations\n should take into account various flanking or follow-on measures provided by\n Community instruments in areas pertaining to the rule of law, arms and drugs\n trafficking, trafficking of women and children, the prevention and the fight\n against terrorism and organised crime and post-conflict stabilisation,\n particularly with regard to the Stability Instrument and the European\n Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI).
The Commission is called upon to:
3) Strengthening security and human\n rights: in this area, the Council, the Commission\n and the Member States are call upon to:
Concern is expressed at the inadequate\n legal safeguards for EU citizens in cases of personal data being made\n available to third countries, notably in cases such as PNR, SWIFT and the\n collection of telecommunication records by the FBI. Parliamentarians\n reiterate their request to the Commission to carry out an inquiry into which\n categories of personal data of European citizens are being accessed and used\n by third countries in their own jurisdictions.
The committee recommends a single data\n protection policy covering both the first and the third pillar. It calls\n on the Council to adopt, as soon as possible, the proposal for a Council\n framework decision on the protection of personal data.
4) Providing EU citizens with a high\n level of security against terrorism and organised crime: the committee calls on EU and the Member States to take all\n measures possible to limit cooperation with third countries that protect\n and/or fund terrorist organisations and stresses that a State must fully\n renounce terrorism before it may benefit from better relations with the EU.\n It urges those States that have not done so to sign and/or ratify all of the\n UN conventions on terrorism. Member States are asked to continue work leading\n to a common UN definition of terrorism. The importance of a proper Community\n policy on terrorism is emphasised. The Council is called on to\n enhance the dialogue with other third countries, to support the development\n of institutional and capacity building, to further develop and implement the\n national action plans to counter corruption effectively and to insert \"counter-terrorism\n clauses\" in agreements signed with third countries. It considers\n that greater funding and the use of the newly created instruments of\n the EU are needed in this area. The Commission and the Council are called\n upon to create standardised procedures for monitoring the production,\n storage, trade, transport, import and export of arms, explosives and weapons\n in order to prevent their misuse both within the EU and in third countries.
5) Strengthening police and judicial\n cooperation and borders management: more\n effective police and judicial cooperation are called for, including improved\n common use of national assets such as liaison officers. It is recommended\n that Europol should soon have the power to organise and coordinate\n operational actions and investigations, to participate in joint investigation\n teams and to deploy its own liaison officers in priority regions such as the\n Western Balkans. Frontex should also play an operational role in the\n management of the external borders through an increase in its operational\n capacities and the provision of sufficient financial, human and technical\n resources, in application of the principle of solidarity and mutual\n assistance between Member States that all should share the burden arising\n from the management of the Union’s external borders. Member States are asked\n to give further support to secure the new Eastern external borders of the EU.
The Commission and Council are asked to\n make all possible efforts to ensure that the authorities of the countries of\n origin and transit cooperate effectively with the EU and its Member States to prevent illegal immigration and fight the rings that practise trafficking\n in people. They are also called upon to undertake a regular assessment of the\n degree of cooperation of the third countries concerned as regards illegal\n immigration.
6) Strengthening international\n solidarity within the migration, readmission and asylum policies: the committee recommends that the Council adopt a common EU\n migration policy, including relevant measures to meet effectively the\n challenges of both legal and illegal immigration. In this context, it calls\n for the implementation of the conclusions adopted eight years ago at the\n Tampere European Council and confirmed by the Lahti informal European\n Council, of the Hague Programme, and of the conclusions of the December 2006\n European Council with regard to the need to apply the global immigration\n strategy adopted in 2005.
The Council is called to introduce\n co-decision and qualified majority voting in the fields of legal migration\n and integration in order to improve decision-making and to complete the\n process begun in 2005 when Community method was extended to illegal migration\n and border controls.
The committee calls for the establishment\n without undue delay of a common European asylum system and urges the\n Council to remove any barriers to its creation. It also considers that the\n conclusion of readmission agreements as a priority which forms part of\n the wider strategy of combating illegal immigration. It recalls the need to\n have clear, transparent and fair common rules on return. The committee is\n concerned that the readmission agreements signed on behalf of the EU do not\n explicitly exclude asylum seekers from the scope of the agreements and may,\n therefore, involve the readmission of asylum-seekers whose claims have not\n yet been determined on their merits, or whose claims have been rejected or\n deemed inadmissible pursuant to the application of the \"safe third\n country\" concept; calls for safeguards to ensure respect for the\n principle of non-refoulement.
MEPs recommend negotiating directives\n on visa facilitation with third countries in the context of the Community\n readmission policy, where possible and on the basis of reciprocity, with\n a view to developing a real partnership on migration management issues. The\n Council is called upon to reduce the cost of visas in order to\n encourage democratic developments in ENP countries and to avoid, in the name\n of security, creating further barriers for the legitimate ordinary traveller.
Lastly, the committee supports the Regional\n Protection Programmes developed by the Commission in close cooperation\n with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the third\n countries involved, and recalls that it is important to ensure that those who\n need protection are able to access it as quickly as possible, regardless of\n which country or region they are in.
\nThe European\n Parliament adopted the resolution based on the own-initiative report drafted\n by Bogdan KLICH (EPP-ED, PL), the Committee on Civil Liberties,\n Justice and Home Affairs approved the report on an area of freedom, security\n and justice: Strategy on the external dimension, Action Plan implementing the Hague programme. (Please see the summary of 05/06/2007.) Parliament also stated that it believed that the time is ripe to overcome political impediments to deeper\n transatlantic cooperation in the broader dimension of freedom and security,\n on a basis of respect for fundamental rights. This should take place, for\n example, in the areas of the fight against drug trafficking, organised crime\n and terrorism, in particular in view of the future civilian ESDP operations\n in Kosovo and Afghanistan, and in the areas of women's rights and the\n exchange and protection of personal data. It recalled, in this connection,\n Parliament's calls for the closure of the jail at Guantánamo, stressing that\n its existence is sending out a negative signal on how to combat terrorism.
\nPURPOSE: to\n present a strategy on the external dimension of the area of freedom, security\n and justice.
CONTENT: the\n European Commission has prepared this Communication in response to the Hague\n Programme, which calls on the EU to adopt by the end of 2005, a “strategy on the external dimension of the area of freedom, security and justices.”
The purpose of the strategy is two-fold: firstly, to contribute to\n the successful establishment of the internal area of freedom, security and\n justice by creating a secure external environment, and secondly to
advance the EU’s external relations objectives by promoting the\n rule of law, democratic values and sound institutions.
Securing\n internal security depends heavily on securing external security and it is\n this challenge which the proposed Strategy seeks to address. External threats\n challenging internal security are numerous and have been identified as:
- \n Terrorist attacks akin to those conducted in Madrid and London.
- \n Organised crime – money laundering, drugs\n trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking.
- \n Illegal immigration.
- \n Failing, unstable, governments
- \n Weak cross-border commercial transactions.
According to\n the Commission’s Communication, the only way to address these pernicious\n threats is through the establishment of a coherent and comprehensive strategy\n that engages third-countries. The proposed strategy would be centred on a\n number of core issues and guided by a set of policy principles. The\n political priorities identified are:
- \n Human Rights: The EU should continue in its\n efforts to promote human rights in third-countries. Support should be given\n to third-country judiciaries in order to instil impartiality and the\n importance of upholding human rights.
- \n Good governance: The EU should strengthen law\n enforcement; strengthen EU-third country co-operation on common security\n threats; fight corruption; and promote transparency alongside democratic\n accountability.
- \n Migration, asylum and border management: The\n EU should offer support to third-countries in their migration management\n policies and their refugee protection policies; support operational border\n management initiatives; help enhance document security; seek to prevent illegal\n immigration; ensure the return of illegal migrants.
- \n Fight against terrorism: The EU should provide\n third countries with assistance in institutional building; it should work\n with third countries to address terrorist recruitment and financing; it should\n support the UN and build upon the EU’s relationship with the US in order to enhance co-operation efforts.
- \n Organised crime: The EU should support\n institutional capacity and develop operational co-operation.
The principles\n guiding the political priorities include, in summary: geographic\n prioritisation (for example, adopting a more comprehensive approach towards\n candidate countries and neighbourhood countries, whilst offering more\n specific, focus driven, actions with other third countries); differentiation\n (recognising the need for a tailored approach to the external challenges\n facing the EU’s security and not simply a “one size fits all” approach).\n Other principles guiding the EU should be: flexibility; cross-pillar\n co-ordination and benchmarking.
The EU has, at\n its disposal, a number of policy instruments to help enact this strategy.\n They include bi-lateral agreements, the EU’s enlargement and pre-accession\n process; the European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plans; regional\n co-operation, individual agreements; operational co-operation; institution\n building and twinning; development policy and external aid.
Underpinning\n the strategy is the need to promote the rule of law in third countries.\n Unstable, undemocratic and failing countries export the kind of threats\n outlined above thereby jeopardising the EU’s establishment of an area of\n security justice and freedom. In following the proposed strategy on securing\n external security, the EU should be well placed to stem the import of\n threats, which undermine its internal security.
\nThe Council\n took note of a Presidency report on the implementation of the “Strategy for\n the External Dimension of the JHA: Global Freedom, Security and Justice”\n covering the year 2006.
The strategy\n calls for the establishment of a partnership with third countries in the\n field of JHA, which includes strengthening the rule of law and promoting\n respect for human rights as well as international obligations. This is to be\n achieved through greater co-operation on:
- migration\n and asylum;
- border\n management and the effective control of borders;
- law\n enforcement co-operation on combating terrorism as well as the fight against\n organised crime,
- including\n trafficking in human beings, money laundering and the fight against\n corruption;
- judicial\n co-operation in civil and criminal matters; and assisting the judiciary and\n judicial reform of third countries.
The report\n focuses on:
- an overall\n assessment of the effectiveness of political, technical and operational\n co-operation with third countries on JHA issues in the previous period;
- specific\n suggestions for geographical and/or thematic priorities for future action;\n and
- options for\n measures, whether political or technical to improve co-operation with\n specific countries and regions.
\nIn adopting the report draft by Bogdan KLICH\n (EPP-ED, PL), the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs\n approved the report on an area of freedom, security and justice: Strategy on the\n external dimension, Action Plan implementing the Hague programme.
The report presents the following list of\n recommendations to the Council and Commission for their consideration:
1) Improving the democratic\n accountability in the external dimension of the AFSJ: the committee urges the Council and the Commission \n to:
- keep Parliament regularly informed of\n the negotiations on agreements dealing with the AFSJ;
- to activate the passerelle clause\n in Article 42 TEU, simultaneously with the constitutional process going\n forward, which would bring the provisions concerning police and judicial\n cooperation on criminal matters within the Community framework, leading to\n greater efficiency, transparency and accountability, as well as democratic\n and judicial control. It therefore urges the Commission to submit to the\n Council before October 2007 a formal proposal for a decision activating\n Article 42 TEU;
- to consider the establishment of the\n office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and an external diplomatic service;
- to\n expedite in particular the adoption of framework decisions with regard to the\n storage, use and exchange of information on criminal convictions and to\n the codification of procedural rights in criminal proceedings throughout\n the EU.
2) As far as the main objectives of\n the Strategy are concerned: the committee\n welcomes the principles set out in the Strategy, especially the need for a\n partnership with third countries to tackle common problems and meet shared\n policy objectives. It recalls the need to rationalise the work of the EU\n institutions and the use of existing instruments, and to coordinate the\n actions of the Member States and actions at EU level in order to ensure a\n coherent and effective response in the EU's relations with third countries\n and to avoid duplication. Parliament is called upon to improve the coherence\n of its external relations activities and to streamline activities pertaining\n to human rights, democratic governance and the rule of law in third countries\n and in the external dimension of security. It is essential to improve\n cross-pillar coordination between, and to avoid the duplication of, the\n various instruments belonging to AFSJ, the European Security and Defence\n Policy (ESDP), the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the\n Community. It stresses that the effectiveness of such coordination should be\n subject to constant review by Parliament and welcomes the steps taken towards\n improved coherence in integrated civil-military cooperation of the ESDP,\n particularly in the field of crisis management.
The planning process of ESDP operations\n should take into account various flanking or follow-on measures provided by\n Community instruments in areas pertaining to the rule of law, arms and drugs\n trafficking, trafficking of women and children, the prevention and the fight\n against terrorism and organised crime and post-conflict stabilisation,\n particularly with regard to the Stability Instrument and the European\n Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI).
The Commission is called upon to:
3) Strengthening security and human\n rights: in this area, the Council, the Commission\n and the Member States are call upon to:
Concern is expressed at the inadequate\n legal safeguards for EU citizens in cases of personal data being made\n available to third countries, notably in cases such as PNR, SWIFT and the\n collection of telecommunication records by the FBI. Parliamentarians\n reiterate their request to the Commission to carry out an inquiry into which\n categories of personal data of European citizens are being accessed and used\n by third countries in their own jurisdictions.
The committee recommends a single data\n protection policy covering both the first and the third pillar. It calls\n on the Council to adopt, as soon as possible, the proposal for a Council\n framework decision on the protection of personal data.
4) Providing EU citizens with a high\n level of security against terrorism and organised crime: the committee calls on EU and the Member States to take all\n measures possible to limit cooperation with third countries that protect\n and/or fund terrorist organisations and stresses that a State must fully\n renounce terrorism before it may benefit from better relations with the EU.\n It urges those States that have not done so to sign and/or ratify all of the\n UN conventions on terrorism. Member States are asked to continue work leading\n to a common UN definition of terrorism. The importance of a proper Community\n policy on terrorism is emphasised. The Council is called on to\n enhance the dialogue with other third countries, to support the development\n of institutional and capacity building, to further develop and implement the\n national action plans to counter corruption effectively and to insert \"counter-terrorism\n clauses\" in agreements signed with third countries. It considers\n that greater funding and the use of the newly created instruments of\n the EU are needed in this area. The Commission and the Council are called\n upon to create standardised procedures for monitoring the production,\n storage, trade, transport, import and export of arms, explosives and weapons\n in order to prevent their misuse both within the EU and in third countries.
5) Strengthening police and judicial\n cooperation and borders management: more\n effective police and judicial cooperation are called for, including improved\n common use of national assets such as liaison officers. It is recommended\n that Europol should soon have the power to organise and coordinate\n operational actions and investigations, to participate in joint investigation\n teams and to deploy its own liaison officers in priority regions such as the\n Western Balkans. Frontex should also play an operational role in the\n management of the external borders through an increase in its operational\n capacities and the provision of sufficient financial, human and technical\n resources, in application of the principle of solidarity and mutual\n assistance between Member States that all should share the burden arising\n from the management of the Union’s external borders. Member States are asked\n to give further support to secure the new Eastern external borders of the EU.
The Commission and Council are asked to\n make all possible efforts to ensure that the authorities of the countries of\n origin and transit cooperate effectively with the EU and its Member States to prevent illegal immigration and fight the rings that practise trafficking\n in people. They are also called upon to undertake a regular assessment of the\n degree of cooperation of the third countries concerned as regards illegal\n immigration.
6) Strengthening international\n solidarity within the migration, readmission and asylum policies: the committee recommends that the Council adopt a common EU\n migration policy, including relevant measures to meet effectively the\n challenges of both legal and illegal immigration. In this context, it calls\n for the implementation of the conclusions adopted eight years ago at the\n Tampere European Council and confirmed by the Lahti informal European\n Council, of the Hague Programme, and of the conclusions of the December 2006\n European Council with regard to the need to apply the global immigration\n strategy adopted in 2005.
The Council is called to introduce\n co-decision and qualified majority voting in the fields of legal migration\n and integration in order to improve decision-making and to complete the\n process begun in 2005 when Community method was extended to illegal migration\n and border controls.
The committee calls for the establishment\n without undue delay of a common European asylum system and urges the\n Council to remove any barriers to its creation. It also considers that the\n conclusion of readmission agreements as a priority which forms part of\n the wider strategy of combating illegal immigration. It recalls the need to\n have clear, transparent and fair common rules on return. The committee is\n concerned that the readmission agreements signed on behalf of the EU do not\n explicitly exclude asylum seekers from the scope of the agreements and may,\n therefore, involve the readmission of asylum-seekers whose claims have not\n yet been determined on their merits, or whose claims have been rejected or\n deemed inadmissible pursuant to the application of the \"safe third\n country\" concept; calls for safeguards to ensure respect for the\n principle of non-refoulement.
MEPs recommend negotiating directives\n on visa facilitation with third countries in the context of the Community\n readmission policy, where possible and on the basis of reciprocity, with\n a view to developing a real partnership on migration management issues. The\n Council is called upon to reduce the cost of visas in order to\n encourage democratic developments in ENP countries and to avoid, in the name\n of security, creating further barriers for the legitimate ordinary traveller.
Lastly, the committee supports the Regional\n Protection Programmes developed by the Commission in close cooperation\n with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the third\n countries involved, and recalls that it is important to ensure that those who\n need protection are able to access it as quickly as possible, regardless of\n which country or region they are in.
\nThe European\n Parliament adopted the resolution based on the own-initiative report drafted\n by Bogdan KLICH (EPP-ED, PL), the Committee on Civil Liberties,\n Justice and Home Affairs approved the report on an area of freedom, security\n and justice: Strategy on the external dimension, Action Plan implementing the Hague programme. (Please see the summary of 05/06/2007.) Parliament also stated that it believed that the time is ripe to overcome political impediments to deeper\n transatlantic cooperation in the broader dimension of freedom and security,\n on a basis of respect for fundamental rights. This should take place, for\n example, in the areas of the fight against drug trafficking, organised crime\n and terrorism, in particular in view of the future civilian ESDP operations\n in Kosovo and Afghanistan, and in the areas of women's rights and the\n exchange and protection of personal data. It recalled, in this connection,\n Parliament's calls for the closure of the jail at Guantánamo, stressing that\n its existence is sending out a negative signal on how to combat terrorism.
\n