Meeting of Chairpersons of Committees on Justice and Home Affairs of the EU Parliaments

Raising awareness against violent extremism was the central discussion issue of the Meeting of Chairpersons of Committees on Justice and Home Affairs of the EU Parliaments Session II, which took place in the Hellenic Parliament, on February 17, 2014.

The Minister of Interior, Mr. Giannis Michelakis, underlined characteristically, that “xenophobia, racism and violent extremism revive tragic memories of our common European past”. In his opinion, to deal effectively with such phenomena, it is imperative to design suitable social inclusion and integration programmes into local societies for legal migrants. He then announced the scheduled design of additional actions in the frame of the new multi-annual Programme of the European Asylum and Migration Fund. Closing, he referred to his initiative, jointly undertaken with his counterparts in Italy and Belgium concerning the signing of a Pact against Racism for the period 2014-2020 by the Ministers of EU member-states.

The EU Special Representative for Human Rights, Mr. Stavros Lambrinidis i, emphasized that EU consistency and trustworthiness in promoting human rights is a real challenge. He assessed that institutional mechanisms required for an integrated approach in defending human rights have not yet been adequately formulated . He also referred to the importance of social rights and their downgrading, resulting in the rise of violent extremism. Closing, he commented that the concept of “human rights” has always represented the protection of the weak worldwide.

The European Commission’s Representative, Head of Cabinet of the Commisisoner on Home Affairs, Ms Maria Asenius elaborated upon the establishment of a special Radicalization Awareness Network ( RAN) , as well as the Commission’s Communiqué, titled “ Preventing Radicalization to Terrorism and Violent Extremism: strengthening the EU’s response”. As she stressed, a comprehensive prevention policy and the use of Internet for blocking extremist propaganda lie among the Commission’s priorities.

The last session of the meeting was dedicated to an “Overview of the Stockholm Programme and the Way Ahead”. The Greek Minister of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights, Mr. Charalambos Athanasiou, after reviewing preceding programmes, referred to the need for concrete policy design in the future, as well as to the need for rational and effective decisions’ and legal regulations’ implementation, already under way. This view was shared by both speakers who took the floor afterwards.

Ms Marietta Karamanli, Vice Chair of the French National Assembly’s European Affairs Committee also referred to the importance of establishing a European Prosecutor Authority, to be based on multi-level cooperation among member-states, and called national parliaments to submit their proposals on the aforementioned issues.

The Director- General for the European Commission’s DG Justice, Ms Francoise Le Bail, associated bureaucracy’s abolishment and the rapid administration of justice with the growth process.

The meeting finished with the concluding remarks by the Chair, Mr. Virvidakis. As he noted, we must be vigilant concerning balance between strengthening citizens’ security without infringing upon human rights and values governing Europe’s cultural identity. For European Migration Policy to become more effective, existing tools, such as FRONTEX must be reinforced, and, at the same time, prevention measures must be emphasized, through cooperation with our neighboring countries, and especially implementation of readmission agreements in transit and origin countries. The principle of solidarity, governing all European values, must also govern all levels of our migration policy.