In the context of Romania`s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Informal Meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers will be held in Bucharest, on 6-8 February 2019. The works will be held at the Palace of the Parliament.
The event will be chaired by the Romanian Minister of Internal Affairs, Carmen Dan, for the Home Affairs section and, respectively, by the Romanian Minister of Justice, Tudorel Toader, for the Justice Section.
The meeting will be attended by Justice and Home Affairs Ministers from the Member States of the European Union, Dimitris Avramopoulos – the European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Julian King – European Commissioner for the Security Union, Věra Jourová – European Commissioner for Justice, Consumer Protection and Gender Equality, Gilles de Kerchove – EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator, Claude Moraes – Chair of the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament, Pavel Svoboda – President of the JURI Committee of the European Parliament, Ladislav Hamran – President of Eurojust, Catherine De Bolle – Executive Director of Europol, Fabrice Leggeri – Frontex Director, Michael O’Flaherty – Director of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), Tiina Astola – General Director for Justice and Consummers Department within the European Commision, Christine Roger – General Director for Justice and Home Affairs within the General Secretariat of the European Union Council, as well as other officials from the European Agencies.
The event will kick off on the evening of 6 February with a welcome cocktail for delegations members from home affairs component.
On Thursday, 7 February, the home affairs ministers from the Member States will meet to discuss issues related to preventing and combating terrorism, police cooperation, Schengen Area, migration and asylum.
On Friday, 8 February, the justice ministers from the Member States will discuss about the development of judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters between members state of the EU, the gathering of electronic evidence in criminal matter and the future of judicial cooperation in criminal matters in the EU.
PROVISIONAL AGENDA FOR HOME AFFAIRS SESSION
Terrorism
Romanian Presidency will aim to intensify cooperation and exchange of good practices between Member States in preventing and combating terrorism. At the meeting in Bucharest, there will be an exchange of views regarding the findings and recommendations of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Terrorism, in the context of the efforts to explore the best ways of dealing with these threats to the security of our citizens.
Police cooperation
In the digital era, the need for innovation and cooperation is stronger than ever. More and more unconventional threats such as cybercrime, widespread organized crime and terrorism are actual nowadays. In order to keep up with the dynamics of the criminal environment, all law enforcement authorities should recognize, understand and use digital data in day-to-day police activities.
Within the meeting, we want to prioritize the exchange of knowledge and expertise (know-how) in the field of digital data.
Schengen
In the last decade, conflicts in different regions of the world or in the neighbourhood of the EU and the increase of terrorist threats have triggered challenges for the EU’s internal security and the management of the EU’s external borders and have determined several Member States to reintroduce temporary controls at the internal borders, putting into question the proper functioning of the Schengen Area of free movement.
The informal meeting in Bucharest will provide with the opportunity to approach issues related to the short and medium term measures that Member States consider necessary in order to restore the functioning of the Schengen Area. Also, the ways to ensure a greater coherence between the policies and instruments that define the Schengen Area will be on the agenda of the meeting.
We consider to take this opportunity to look into new ways of strengthening the Schengen area.
Migration and asylum
The Romanian Presidency will continue the discussions in order to identify consensual solutions in the field of migration. As part of the efforts to reduce illegal migration flows towards EU, the external dimension of migration and cooperation with third countries is a priority.
PROVISIONAL AGENDA FOR JUSTICE SESSION
Ways for further development of the judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters
The main objective of this session is to start a reflection process on the future of judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters in the EU after 2019, by taking into account the acquis implementation dimension and in the context of the European Parliament`s term, that ends in May 2019, and the end of the mandate of the current European Commission in October 2019.
Gathering electronic evidence in criminal law – the protection of people in cyberspace through an efficent response by the criminal justice, in respect of the rule of law standards and the fundamental human rights
Cybercrime and the electronic evidence create challenges of an unprecedented complexity for the criminal justice. Often, the necessary evidence is held by multinational providers that offer their services in a particular Member State, are located in another state and the data is stored in a third country.
The informal meeting of justice ministers will offer the opportunity for an exchange of views and the increase of the public awareness at the national level (including the private sector and the civil society), respectively at the EU level, of the proposed solutions and the procedural guarantees provided, including with regard to the necessity, the proportionality, the ways of judicial review and the standards of personal data protection.
Also, there will be a first exchange of views on future international agreements in the matter.
The future of judicial cooperation in criminal matters in the EU
Today, the EU is based on a strong and detailed legal framework on judicial cooperation in criminal matters, the juridical instruments that implement the mutual recognition of the judicial decisions principle being at the core of this legal framework.
At this informal meeting, a reflection process about this topic will start, the ministers being invited to share their point of view on some possible strategic developments in the field of EU judicial cooperation in criminal matters.