Raad bespreekt verdere ontwikkeling van Europees beleid op gebied van justitie en binnenlandse zaken (en)

EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers will gather on December 5-6 in Brussels to discuss the free movement of people in the EU, migration, data protection and future cooperation in the area of freedom, security and justice. Agreement is expected on a regulation to facilitate cross-border debt recovery in civil and commercial matters.

Both Home Affairs and Justice ministers will discuss the perspectives of the development of the EU justice and home affairs area, which was already discussed during their informal meeting in Vilnius in July. The current multiannual Stockholm programme expires at the end of 2014 and the Lithuanian Presidency i will present the review of opinions and positions of the Member States on the further development of this area.

”We hope that the European Commission will apply the ideas set out in this document in drafting its Communication which will serve as the basis for the future guidelines,” said Lithuanian Minister of Home Affairs Dailis Alfonsas Barakauskas, who will chair the meeting of the Ministers of Home Affairs.

The Council will consider the report of the EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator on the implementation of the June recommendations of the Justice and Home Affairs Council on the so-called foreign fighters, persons who fight in the armed conflict zones (Syria in particular) and return to the European Union, possibly endangering the security of the EU and the Member States.

Ministers of Home Affairs will also hold discussions on the free movement of persons in the EU. After the Ministers of Interior of Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in July expressed concerns regarding the cases of malpractice related to the free movement of EU citizens in the Union, it was agreed that the European Commission would present a report on the issue and its scope.

The report on the Task Force Mediterranean will be presented to the Council. The Task Force was established by the European Commission at the request of Italy after the October tragedy close to the island of Lampedusa where more than 300 migrants from the Northern Africa drowned.

The meeting of Justice Ministers on December 6 is expected to reach the agreement on the regulation creating the European Account Preservation Order. The proposal aims to create a new, fast and inexpensive European procedure for creditors to request a court order to preserve the funds of a debtor in a bank account held in another Member State. Implementation of the order would secure the possibilities to enforce future judgement satisfying creditor’s claim against the debtor.

“The Lithuanian Presidency has managed to achieve a reasonable compromise striking the appropriate balance between the interests of the creditor and of the debtor. The text submitted for the approval by the ministers is the result of the negotiations of more than two years. This procedure will be attractive not only for enterprises but also for citizens seeking the recovery of debts in cross-border disputes,” said Lithuanian Minister of Justice Juozas Bernatonis, who will chair the meeting of Justice Ministers.

The meeting is expected to reach the agreement on the proposal amending to the Regulation on the jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (Brussels I Regulation). The amendments would ensure coherence between the Unified Patent Court agreement and the Brussels I Regulation and provide for both unitary patent protection and unitary patent litigation system in the EU.

The Lithuanian Presidency is to continue discussion on one of the key issues in the proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation, the so-called “one-stop-shop” principle. The proposal of the European Commission sets out that when the activities of an undertaking in the EU take place in more than one Member State, the obligation for cooperation with the national data protection authority would be limited to the authority of the main establishment of the undertaking. The Presidency will ask the ministers to decide on certain essential elements of the proposed “one-stop-shop” mechanism.