Third pillarmeetings
01 July 1995
During 1994 there were 147 meetings of the K4 Committee, the three Steering Groups and their 20 Working Parties. Three new Working Parties were started under the German Presidency (July-December 1994), those on: Forged Documents (Steering Group I), Police Cooperation (Interception)(Steering Group II), Fraud in Third Pillar (Steering Group III). For the first time a breakdown of the seven Working Groups under Steering Group III (judicial cooperation) is available.
The K4 Committee was set up in November 1993 under the Maastricht Treaty and is comprised of senior interior ministry officials. It considers reports coming from the three Steering Groups, each of which has a number of Working Parties. COREPER (the committee of permanent representatives of each of the 15 EU states), clears all reports from the K4 Committee before they are put on the agendas of the Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers.
*K4 Committee: 10 meetings (five under each of the Greek and German Presidencies)
*Steering Group I (immigration & asylum): 55 meetings
7 meetings: Steering Group I
10 meetings: Working Group on External Frontiers
9 meetings: Working Group on Visas
4 meetings: Working Group on CIREA
7 meetings: Working Group on CIREFI
8 meetings: Working Group on Asylum
6 meetings: Working Group on Migration
4 meetings: Working Group on Forged Documents (starting under the German Presidency)
plus: Migration Seminar on Expulsion (March 1994)
*Steering Group II (security, law enforcement, police and customs cooperation): 39 meetings
5 meetings: Steering Group II
12 meetings:Europol
7 meetings: Drugs and Organised Crime
5 meetings: Customs Cooperation (all under the Greek Presidency; none under the German Presidency)
4 meetings: Police Cooperation
3 meetings: Police Cooperation (Interception) (all under the German Presidency)
3 meetings: Terrorism
*Steering Group III (judicial cooperation): 43 meetings
5 meetings: Steering Group III
10 meetings: Community & National Criminal Law
7 meetings: International Organised Crime
8 meetings: Extension of Brussels Convention
7 meetings: Extradition
2 meetings: Disqualification of Driving Licences
2 meetings: Transmission of Acts (started under the German Presidency)
1 meeting: Fraud in Third Pillar (started November 1994)
1 meeting: Drugs & International Organised Crime (Ministerial)
The planned meetings programme under the Spanish Presidency shows that a new Working Group under Steering Group II has been set up on Eurodac - a planned computerised fingerprint identification system for refugees and asylum-seekers - with three meetings before the end of the year. Another new Working Party on Forged Documents, which was started under the German Presidency in the second half of last year, is to have five meetings.<