The K4 Committee
01 January 1991
The K4 Committee
artdoc August=1993
The new EC structures which are to replace the existing ad hoc
groups when the Maastricht Treaty is finally ratified (Germany
has yet to complete ratification) are beginning to emerge. The
plethora of EC-wide groups which have been meeting on an
intergovernmental basis for nearly 20 years is to be replaced by
a single structure. The Trevi Group (started in 1975) and its
five working parties, the Ad Hoc Group on Immigration (started
in 1986) with its six working parties, Mutual Assistance Group
(MAG, customs cooperation) and other groups are to be brought
together under a new Council of Interior and Justice Ministers.
The real power, however, will lie with a committee of senior
officials comprising the K4 Committee.
This new structure is to be set up under the little debated
Title IV of the Maastricht Treaty. This Title provides for
cooperation between the EC member states on issues concerning
justice and internal affairs covering: the controls at external
borders of the EC; immigration and asylum policies; `combatting
unauthorised immigration'; drugs; international fraud; judicial
cooperation on civil and criminal matters; customs; and police
cooperation including the creation of a European Police Office,
Europol (Article K.1). Article K.3 determines that cooperation
in these areas are to remain intergovernmental (with two
exceptions on visa policy where the Commission can take the
initiative). This means that the work of the new Council of
Ministers and the K4 Committee will remains outside of the
democratic control of the European Parliament and that its
deliberations will be conducted in secret.
The K4 Committee will have three steering groups, each with a
number of working groups. The new structure will be:
Immigration & asylum policy:
working groups on: 1) asylum; 2) immigration policy; 3) visas;
4) control of external frontiers; 5) clearing houses on asylum
and immigration (CIREA and CIREFI).
Security, law enforcement, police and customs:
working groups on: 1) counter terrorism; 2) public order,
training, scientific and technical work; 3) combatting serious
crime; 4) Europol; 5) customs; 6) drugs.
Judicial cooperation:
two working groups: 1) civil matters; 2) criminal matters.
The K4 Committee will have one full member from each member state
and one from the Commission. In practice, the membership of the
Committee will be the existing Coordinators of Free Movement (set
up in 1988) who wrote the report recommending its creation. The
K4 Committee will be based in the Council and its work will be
paid for out of the EC budget. The Council is one of the main
organisations of the EC representing the 12 member governments.
The formal organisations are: the European Commission, the
European Parliament and the Court of Justice.
In addition to the three steering groups and their working
parties the Committee will also be responsible for setting up the
European Information System (EIS) which will provide an EC-wide
computer system covering all areas of policing, law and
immigration.
As with the ad hoc groups the deliberations of the K4 Committee
will be conducted in secret. Through this process policies are
drawn up by senior civil servants, police and immigration
officers, customs officials, and internal security service
officers. When policies are agreed they are presented to the
Council of Ministers and only when they have rubber-stamped them
are they made public. The public, press and parliaments of the
EC are therefore presented with a fait accompli.
The K4 Committee, unlike the old ad hoc groups, is to be a
permanent structure and forms the basis of the European state.
see Statewatching the new Europe: a handbook on the European
state, to be published by Statewatch in September.
Statewatch vol 3 no 4 July-August 1993