Date of release : 29-01-2005

Policy area : Justice and Home Affairs Justice and Home Affairs

Event : Informal Meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers

The work of the informal "Justice, Freedom and Security" meeting - the name the Minister for Justice and president in office of the "Justice and Home Affairs" Council now wishes this EU policy area to be called - continued on Saturday, 29 January 2005, with a debate over the direction and priorities to follow in the drawing up of the Action Plan geared to the implementation of the "The Hague Programme".

The Commission has been invited by the Council to present an Action Plan under the Luxembourg Presidency, which will see the carrying out of the objectives and priorities by 2010. This proposal is to be adopted by the Council in June at the end of the Luxembourg Presidency.

This action programme will include a precise agenda. During the joint press conference with the Vice-President of the Commission, Franco Frattini, and the Minister Delegate for Foreign Affairs and Immigration, Nicolas Schmit, Luc Frieden stated that "this programme needs to be both ambitious and realistic and carried out according to a fixed agenda. On this point, the European Council will evaluate during the second half of 2006, halfway through the Hague Programme, the progress made in its implementation."