The “terrorists lists”: new (coordinated?) initiatives of the United Nations and European Union

Something is moving , at last, as far as protection of fundamental rights is concerned for people who have been erroneously registered by the EU or by the United nations in the so called “terrorist lists”.
It is happening after years of quarrels raised at political level by the European Parliament, the Council of Europe’s Assembly and even by the UN General Assembly and after several judgments notably by the European Court of Justice, as it happened with the landmark Kadi ruling in September 2008.

It is worth remembering that these lists are established by the UN Security Council acting in the framework of Title VII of the UN Charter which deals with the binding measures to be taken to preserve “…the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression”.

These measures aimed notably at fighting international terrorism have been routinely adopted after 9/11 in the framework of the UNSC Resolution 1267/99 (which refers the establishment of “UN” terrorists lists by specialized Committees of the Security Council) and Resolution 1373/01 (which requires all the UN Member States to establish their own “national” terrorists lists).
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Council continues debates on the Proposal regarding the Framework Decision on Transfer of proceedings in criminal matters

The orientation debate held in the Council on Monday 30 November on the framework decision on the transfer of proceedings in criminal matters (*) (Interinstitutional Procedure 2009/0811, Council document 13504/09) highlighted that currently there are several different legal possibilities to transfer criminal proceedings within the Union and this contributes to legal uncertainty, incompatibility between legal systems and is contrary to the Treaty objective of creating an Area of justice within the Union. The Presidency is convinced that transfer of proceedings is a missing link in the cooperation between Member States and that a provision on the creation of jurisdiction would become a cornerstone in such cooperation.
According to the Council Press Release progress has been made on several provisions. There remain, however, outstanding questions related to an essential element of this draft legislation, namely the question of jurisdiction. Ministers held a substantial discussion on the principle of jurisdiction to be used for future work on this dossier.
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From the 1st of January Europol become operational as a full EU Agency

On January 1st the Europol Convention signed in ’98 will be definitely over and the Council Decision 2009/371/JHA adopted on 6 April 2009 will become fully operational.
Following the new legal basis , comparable to the one’s of Eurojust, the Europol mandate could be adapted more rapidly in response to trends in crime and every time that new tasks will be needed or should be modified there be no more need of a five years lasting procedure to ratify amending protocols (as it happened for the ones negotiated in 2000,2202 and 2003).
Moreover, instead of the Member States finances, Europol will from 2010 be financed by the EU budget and its officials and other servants will have the same statute of the ones serving the other EU institutions.
On November 30th the JHA Council adopted the latest implementing decisions needed to make Europol fully operational at the beginning of the new year in its new shape.
A first proposal was focused Europol’s relations with partners, including the exchange of personal data and classified information , the second determined the list of third States and organisations with which Europol shall conclude agreements, the third was focused on the rules for Europol analysis work and the fourth on the Europol rules on confidentiality.
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The Council signes the provisional agreement on SWIFT

Despite the European Parliament concerns, the Council has signed the last day before the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on Novembre 30th, an EU-US agreement on the processing and transfer of financial messaging data for the fight against terrorism. The agreement will be provisionnally applicable from 1 February 2010 and will expire on 31 October 2010.

However, due to the reservations put forward by two Member States the agreement has not been formally concluded under the Nice Treaty so that at the entry into force of the new Treaty on December 1st a new legal regime has entered into force which require for the conclusion the approbation by the European Parliament.

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Data protection: At last published the revision of the “E-Privacy” Directive

By updating its regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services the EU has notably amended the Directives 2002/22/EC (Universal Service Directive) and 2002/58/EC (Directive on privacy and electronic communications). The final text retain the EP amendments (**) which include:

– adaptation of universal service to market and technological developments, including allowing Member States to upgrade universal service obligations to broadband services;

– strengthened access to e-communications for disabled people, in particular via the inclusion of terminal equipment in the scope of the Directive; increased access to and choice of services for the disabled, strengthened right to emergency services in the EU;

– improved contract conditions and greater information to consumers on services, including increased comparability of prices and greater power to the National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) on tariff information for consumers;

– information to users on the most common uses of e-communications services to engage in unlawful activities or to disseminate harmful content;

– strengthened provisions on access to emergency services, including inter alia a stronger obligation to pass caller location information to the emergency authorities, improved citizens awareness of  ‘112′ number; and introduction of comitology powers for the Commission on access to ‘112’ services;

– facilitating citizens’ access to services starting with “116” for certain services of social value such as reporting missing children, and implementing powers for the Commission to ensure the effective implementation of 116 numbering ranges;

– facilitation of change of provider, including a time limit for number activation after porting; reinforcement of NRAs’ powers to monitor and enforce porting; creation of comitology powers for the modernisation of porting obligations;

– measures to be taken by providers in order to safeguard the security of their services; 
obligation for providers of electronic communications services to notify security breaches affecting personal data to authorities and (in some cases) to subscribers or individuals concerned and introduction of implementing powers for the Commission on the modalities of breach notifications;

– strengthened provisions on protection against spyware and placing of cookies on users’ devices.

Borders / Visas : Published the Regulation allowing a Visa Waiver for citizen of Serbia, Montenegro and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

With five Western Balkan countries — Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia — Visa Facilitation Agreements entered into force on 1 January 2008, as a first concrete step forward along the path set out by the Thessaloniki agenda towards a visa-free travel regime for the citizens of Western Balkan countries.

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A new European Union after Lisbon?

After many years of skirmishes, referendums and tense debates, the Treaty of Lisbon finally entered into force on 1 December 2009.

The institutional framework of the European Union will finally become more transparent and streamlined although a few exceptions remain for the opt-outs granted to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland and Czech Republic.

The European Parliament will have (almost) full legislative powers and the European Court of Justice will monitor adherence to and respect of the rule of law in (almost) all domains falling under the European Union competence.

The European Community will therefore disappear after fifty-two years of honourable service. It will be incorporated within the European Union which will not hide its political vocation any further by pretending to be an economic body, as “eurosceptic” countries wanted it to be.

This arm wrestling, lasted for almost thirty years. It began with the Council of the European Union in London in 1981 when the foreign affairs ministers of Germany and Italy, namely Genscher and Colombo, presented a project for a “European Act”. Its aim was to develop political cooperation as well as promote the culture, fundamental rights and harmonisation of national legislations outside the domains already covered by the Community treaties, together with the fight against terrorism and criminality.
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The Justice and Home Affairs Council presented to the European Council the priorities for the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (Stockholm Programme 2010-2014)

During a meeting that started under the Nice regime and finished under Lisbon, the Council of Justice and Home Affairs has adopted the proposal for the multi-annual 2010-14 strategic work programme in the area of freedom, security and justice which has already been addressed by the European Parliament and that should be adopted during the European Council of 10 December in Stockholm.

Following the Tampere Programme (1999) and that of the Hague (2004) the 82 pages of the new programme should define, under article 68 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union “[…] the strategic guidelines for legislative and operational planning within the area of freedom, security and justice”.

A rather arduous exercise given that article 67 of the same Treaty establishes that this “area” should be carried out “[…] with respect for fundamental rights and the different legal systems and traditions of the Member States”.

Now, a glance through the many suggestions of the documents highlights the existing strains between European perspectives and national resistances. This becomes apparent by analysing the ambiguity of the formulation used, the silences and the rhetorical – rather than concrete – calls to the protection of rights and fight against discrimination at the European level. 

The institutional perspective which was pretty much absent in the master proposal of the Commission (with the Irish referendum still pending at that point) as well as in the proposals prepared by the Future Group, finally peeps out with some unrehearsed recalls to the role of the European and national parliaments.

This democratic control visibly frightens the authors of these kind of document especially in relation to sensible domains such as judicial and police cooperation. This is because diplomats and civil servants with wide cultural, experience and technical skills, often perceive any openness to political dialogue as if they were taking a leapt into the unknown, even when they are genuine pro-Europeans.

A further demonstration of the persistence of these resistances comes from the almost desperate and then failed attempt to conclude a transatlantic agreement on a very sensible issues such as the exchange of financial data to fight terrorism, which took place during the last hours in force of the Treaty of Nice on the 30 November.

Nevertheless, the phase has now been ridden out and the actors of the three institutions should come to terms with this and increase their mutual trust, as it has already happened in other even more sensible domains for the European development, such as the internal market.

Establishment of a Joint EU Resettlement Programme

The EU Council of Ministers of Justice and Internal Affairs welcomed the European Commission’s proposal on the establishment of a Joint EU Resettlement Program (COM(2009) 447 final) and the correlated proposal to amend the Decision No 573/2007/EC establishing the European Refugee Fund for the period 2008-2013 (COM(2009) 456 final) on 21 September 2009.

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