Date of release : 03-06-2005

Policy area : Justice and Home Affairs Justice and Home Affairs

Event : Justice and Home Affairs Council

Responding to the European Council request of December 2004, the JAI Council on June 2 and 3 2005 has drawn up an action plan to translate The Hague programme into specific action. This multiannual programme for 2005-2010 aims to reinforce cooperation between European states in the fields of justice and home affairs, in order to make Europe "an area of freedom, security and justice".

At the Council’s request, the Commission presented a communication on an action plan in May 2005. Following the meeting of Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs, Luc Frieden stated "after very intensive discussions, we came to an agreement on an action plan. With this programme, we know exactly what we need to do over the next five years. This does not mean that the Council agrees with all the measures proposed by the Commission, because the Council has yet to examine the content of these proposals. But today, we have a specific action list with a schedule for 2005 and 2010".

Underscoring the specific action with this action plan, the current President added that "this plan will provide added value for European citizens because it discusses the implementation of common teams of experts to reinforce external borders controls, of an asylum procedure and new European visas, of an exchange of information between Member States' criminal records and of trans-European witness protection measures. These are very concrete measures, which will allow us to build a real European area of freedom, security and justice".