Increased number of EU laws face scrutiny from internal security officials
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Country/Region
20 September 2024
Security issues need to be considered in all EU policies, say draft "strategic guidelines in the field of Justice and Home Affairs" obtained by Statewatch. The guidelines will be adopted by the European Council to guide law and policy-making between 2024 and 2029. They also call for "adequate EU funds" to ensure implementation of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, the expansion and interconnection of policing and migration databases, and for other issues such as plans to increase deportations.
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Image: European Parliament, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The draft text (pdf) says that laws not related to justice and home affairs, but "with significant impact on internal security" or "using concepts or affecting instruments" related to justice and home affairs should face increased scrutiny from security officials.
This scrutiny should come from "increased coordination" within both the Commission and the Council, says the document.
It also indicates that bigger budgets will be needed in the justice and home affairs field:
"Ensuring that implementation, future ambitions and increased obligations of Member States are underpinned by adequate EU funds will be key... the next Multiannual Financial Framework for the Union will have to reflect these priorities, ensuring that the EU budget is fit for the future and that European responses are given to European challenges."
Amongst the measures that need to be implemented are the laws that make up the Pact on Migration and Asylum, the EU's "interoperable" policing and migration databases, and ongoing efforts to increase deportations.
More policing, more border externalisation
Attempts to crack down on migrant smuggling and to further externalise migration and border controls to non-EU states should continue, says the text:
"The European Union must remain committed to breaking the business model of traffickers and smuggling networks and to tackling the root causes of irregular migration in order to avoid that people embark on perilous journeys. To this end, the European Union will remain vigilant to all migratory routes and will continue to develop ambitious and durable comprehensive partnerships with countries of origin and transit in a mutually beneficial way, including border and security partnerships with our neighbours and with countries globally, and encompassing legal pathways in line with the mutual needs of third countries and Member States. The Commission is invited to consult with Member States on various ideas for strategically optimizing such partnerships." [emphasis in original, indicating an addition compared to the original document]
As a report in The Guardian revealed this week, the reality of the anti-migration "partnership" between EU and Tunisia involves "funding security forces committing widespread sexual violence against vulnerable women."
The document also says "new and innovative ways to prevent and counter irregular migration will be explored, in accordance with international and EU law."
Mission letters
This, like much else in the strategic guidelines, is similar in wording to Ursula von der Leyen's "mission letter" (pdf) to the proposed new Commissioner for internal affairs and migration.
That letter calls on the proposed Commissioner, Magnus Brunner of the Austrian People's Party, to "steer further reflections on innovative operational solutions to counter irregular migration, while respecting international law and ensuring sustainable and fair solutions for the migrants themselves."
The fact that these documents feel it necessary to refer so insistently to the need to meet international legal obligations is likely to fuel suspicions that the EU will be seeking to push at the margins of the law wherever possible.
Police operations
The document also calls for ongoing action against drug trafficking, and says: "Public private partnerships should be leveraged in the fight against organized crime."
New measures for invasive police powers are also likely to be on the cards:
"In this regard, the result of the work of the High-level Group (HLG) on access to data for effective law enforcement, and its recommendations should be the basis for the political and practical direction for the European vision of effective access to data for law enforcement purposes."
An addition to this version of the document also suggests renewed counter-terrorism action:
"The European Union will take a firmer approach to prevent and combat terrorism, radicalisation, disinformation, violent extremism and anti-democratic tendencies online and offline, and will uphold its common values and the European way of life."
The first version of the strategic guidelines was circulated in the Council just before the summer break.
The text is being discussed in the secretive JHA Counsellors working group, but ultimately has to be approved by EU heads of state and government in the European Council.
Documentation
- Strategic guidelines in the field of Justice and Home Affairs (Council doc. 12464/1/24 REV 1, LIMITE, 11 September 2024, pdf)
- Mission letter from Ursula von der Leyen to Magnus Brunner (pdf)
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