EU JHA Council Conclusions on Stockholm Programme Action Plan

This blog post is about the EU JHA Council Conclusions on Stockholm Programme Action Plan, a crucial building block in the area of freedom, security and justice (FSJ).




The provisional Conclusions of the EU JHA Council meeting were published in English Friday evening:



3008th Council meeting Justice and Home Affairs, Brussels, 23 April 2010 (document 8920/10)



Stockholm Programme



The Commission JHA web pages refer to document 17024/09 of 2 December 2009 as the Stockholm Programme, here as a link through the website of the Swedish Council presidency and here as an earlier direct link to the document:

The Stockholm Programme – An open and secure Europe serving and protecting the citizens; Brussels, 2 December 2009; document 17024/09



However, in the 23 April 2010 Conclusions, the Justice and Home Affairs Council refers to document 5371/10 as the Stockholm Programme, without indicating the document(s) it replaces, if any:



The Stockholm Programme - An open and secure Europe serving and protecting citizens; Brussels, 3 March 2010; Council document 5731/10


With some attention to detail, the Council and the Commission could make life easier for readers.



Conclusions: Stockholm Programme Action Plan



In the Grahnlaw blog post EU JHA: Stockholm Programme Action Plan in English, French and German (24 April 2010) we linked to the three existing language versions of the Commission Communication COM(2010) 171 final.

(The Council has registered it as document 8895/10; 22 April 2010. The Communication has not yet been registered on the Legislative Observatory of the European Parliament, Oeil.)

By the way, the Commission Communication refers to the Stockholm Programme as: Council document 17024/09, adopted by the European Council on 10/11 December 2009 (page 2, footnote 1).

The Justice and the Home Affairs Ministers, or their substitutes during this meeting with reduced attendance, were given a presentation of the Commission’s proposal, which is meant to guide implementation of the Stockholm Programme.



The JHA Council conclusions (8920/10) indicate that the Council wants to influence the final version, and that final adoption is scheduled for June 2010 (page 8). Here is the text, including the typos:

ACTION PLAN IMPLEMENTING THE STOCKHOLM PROGRAMME

Justice and home affairs ministers heard presentations by the Commission on its recommendations for an action plan implementing the Stockholm Programme (5731/10). Ministers welcomed the Commission paper, stressed, however, that the action plan should more closely mirror the objectives set out in the Stockholm Programme itself. The Council asked its preparatory bodies to swiftly start consultations on the action plan with a view to adopt the it in June 2010.

The Stockholm Programme is the multi-annual strategic work programme in the area of freedom, security and justice. It was adopted by the Council on 30 November 2009 and endorsed by the European Council on 10-11 December 2009. It sets out the priorities for EU action in the area for the next five years (2010-14). It puts the citizen at the heart of EU action and deals, among other things, with questions of citizenship, justice and security as well as asylum, migration and the external dimension of justice and home affairs.

It is ten years since the EU set itself the target of creating an area of freedom, justice and security. The Stockholm Programme will built on the progress made during the implementation of the Tampere Programme (2000-2004) and the Hague Programme (2005-2010).

But we are hardly much wiser as to the coming consultations.




Ralf Grahn