EU JHA: Stockholm programme building blocks

Eight million EU citizens live in another member state than their native country, there are 18.5 million registered third country nationals and an estimated 8 million illegal immigrants.

Cross-border aspects of justice and home affairs (JHA), or the evolving area of freedom, security and justice (FSJ), are becoming increasingly important for individuals within the European Union.

Yesterday we started to look at the experiences so far, in the blog post: EU justice: Towards the Stockholm programme.



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Background

The Commission presented a background note on the evaluation of the Hague programme and the challenges for the future Stockholm programme in: Questions et réponse sur le futur programme de Stockholm . Quelle est la situation actuelle? Où en est la construction de l'espace de liberté, de sécurité et de justice? (MEMO/09/266, Brussels, 10 Juin 2009 ; available only in French).



The aim is that the European Council adopts the Stockholm programme in December 2009, and that an action programme is adopted next spring.



Future vision

The Commission published a press release with the main proposals for the Stockholm programme: European Commission outlines its vision for the area of freedom, security and justice in the next five years (IP/09/894, 10 June 2009; available in several languages).




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Extended evaluation of the Hague programme

The Communication we mentioned in yesterday’s post, COM(2009) 263 final, was accompanied by a more detailed version, posted on the web pages of the Commission:

Justice, Freedom and Security in Europe since 2005: An evaluation of the Hague programme and action plan ─ An extended report on the evaluation of the Hague Programme (Brussels, 10.6.2009, SEC(2009) 766 final; 131 pages).




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Legal instruments


The Communication was also accompanied by the Communication:

Follow-up of the implementation of legal instruments in the fields of justice, freedom and security at national level ─ Implementation Scoreboard (Brussels, 10.6.2009, SEC(2009) 765 final; 45 pages).




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Scoreboard


In addition the Commission published the following Communication:
General overview of instruments and deadlines provided in the Hague Programme and Action Plan in the fields of justice, freedom and security ─ Institutional Scoreboard (Brussels, 10.6.2009, SEC(2009) 767 final; 120 pages).






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The Commission has laid the foundations for the coming Stockholm programme.


Ralf Grahn