Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 November 2013
747. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the progress he has made in advancing the Irish role in EU judicial and home affairs co-operation as set out in the programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41213/13]
View answerAdvancing the Irish role in EU Judicial and Home Affairs cooperation has been one of my uppermost priorities since my appointment as Minister for Justice and Equality. To this end, I have strived to attend and actively participate in as many meetings of the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council as possible. I have partaken in 13 of the 14 formal meetings and all five informal meetings of the Council held in the period since my appointment. These include the two formal meetings and one informal meeting held during Ireland's recent EU Presidency, each of which I chaired. To date, the only JHA Council meeting which I have not been able to attend was an extraordinary one-day meeting convened at short notice in May 2011 to discuss immigration and asylum issues arising from political developments in North Africa. On that occasion, Ireland was represented by Minister of State Kathleen Lynch, T.D.
As well as active participation in the Council, I have also taken the opportunity to engage as much as possible with the European Commission and the European Parliament. These engagements were through bilateral meetings with the relevant EU Commissioners and addressing the relevant Parliamentary Committees.
Of course, enhancing Ireland's role in JHA co-operation means much more than simply participating in Council meetings; it also entails participating in relevant EU policy and legislative measures to the greatest extent consistent with other legal and policy imperatives at home. The Deputy will be aware that most of the proposed measures in the JHA area are subject to the 21st Protocol annexed to the Lisbon Treaty. This Protocol provides Ireland and the UK with discretion as to whether or not to participate in such measures on a case-by-case basis. My policy as Minister has consistently been that Ireland should opt into as many of these measures as is practicable while having regard to the necessities of preserving the fundamental character of our criminal justice system and of protecting our Common Travel Area with the UK.
The following are some of the key measures or proposed measures which Ireland has opted into since this Government took office:
- A Directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime;
- A Regulation on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters (which ensures that, for example, a civil barring order obtained by a domestic violence victim is valid throughout the EU);
- A Directive on the use of Passenger Name Record data within the EU for tackling terrorism and other serious crime;
- A Regulation creating a European Account Preservation Order to facilitate cross-border debt recovery in civil and commercial matters;
- A Directive on the freezing and confiscation of proceeds of crime in the EU;
- A Regulation to reform the Union's existing legal framework on insolvency proceedings;
- A Directive to combat fraud against the Union's financial interests;
- A Directive on the protection of the euro and other currencies against counterfeiting;
- A Regulation establishing an Asylum and Migration Fund for the period 2014 to 2020;
- A Regulation establishing a funding instrument for police co-operation in the fight against serious crime as part of the Internal Security Fund for the period 2014 to 2020.
Ireland's recent Presidency of the Council of the European Union provided a valuable opportunity to take centre stage in advancing the JHA agenda and in enhancing Ireland's reputation as an enthusiastic and committed player in this field. My officials and I were determined to make the most of this opportunity and with this in mind we set ambitious targets, which I am happy to report were achieved and in some cases exceeded. Ireland's EU Presidency priorities in the JHA area, and the progress made on each, are set out below. An updated draft of Chapters 1 to 4 of the General Data Protection Regulation was produced and general support secured for certain fundamental concepts and key aspects which will be an excellent basis for future work. This proposed Regulation provides for the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.
Political guidelines were agreed on the draft Regulation on Insolvency Proceedings. These guidelines will inform the continuing negotiations on the Regulation, which seeks to reform the existing EU insolvency laws to reflect the fact that businesses increasingly have operations in more than one Member State. Work was also advanced on the European Account Preservation Order, which is a cross-border debt recovery measure in civil and commercial matters. The Regulation providing for mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters was adopted, which means that civil protection measures (such as barring orders) can still be enforced if a victim moves from one Member State to another.
Turning to the criminal justice sphere, the Irish Presidency secured agreement with the European Parliament on the Directive on Access to a Lawyer in Criminal Proceedings, which forms part of the wider criminal justice procedural rights package. The Presidency also secured Council agreement on a general approach to a draft Directive to strengthen the existing arrangements to protect the Union's financial interests against fraud, corruption and money laundering.
The internal security of the Union will always be a priority for each Presidency, and in this regard the Irish Presidency kept the fight against organised crime and terrorism firmly on the agenda. During the March JHA Council I chaired an extensive debate on the threat to internal security from the Sahel and Maghreb regions of Africa, with a particular focus on terrorism originating in Mali. As part of the June Council, I chaired a discussion on the issue of EU citizens travelling to third countries as foreign fighters and the associated radicalisation risk posed by these persons on returning home. The Presidency also secured the agreement of Council to revise the Union's Strategy on combating radicalisation and recruitment to terrorism.
In the area of organised crime and drugs, the Irish Presidency obtained Council agreement on the next four-year EU Action Plan on Drugs and on the Europol priorities for the next four-year policy cycle on organised crime.
In the field of asylum and migration, the Irish Presidency secured agreement on the two remaining elements of the Common European Asylum System, viz. the Asylum Procedures Directive (which provides minimum standards on procedures for granting and withdrawing refugee status) and the Eurodac Regulation, which concerns the system for comparing the fingerprints of asylum seekers. We also reached a provisional agreement with the European Parliament on the Regulation establishing a European Border Surveillance System, known as Eurosur. New visa facilitation agreements with Moldova, the Ukraine, Armenia and Cape Verde were secured, as were readmission agreements with the latter two countries. Substantial progress was also made on an EU-Russia visa facilitation agreement.
The ongoing Syrian crisis and its wider impacts loomed large throughout Ireland's Presidency. At the informal JHA meeting which I chaired in Dublin in January, I invited the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to participate in an important debate on the escalating refugee crisis arising from the Syrian conflict and the actions that the EU could take to assist in its alleviation. As mentioned above, the proceedings of the June Council included a timely discussion on the phenomenon of EU citizens fighting in Syria and in other conflicts.
Finally, the Irish Presidency secured a major agreement with the European Parliament on the Schengen Governance Package, which will enhance the security and stability of the border-free arrangements for participating States. Agreement on this package also enabled progress to resume on five separate files in the Home Affairs area upon which the European Parliament had suspended negotiations since June 2012. The Irish Presidency also oversaw the successful migration to the second generation Schengen Information System, better known as SIS II.
