Hague Programme

The European Council in Tampere (Finland) was a significant step towards strengthening the European Union as an area of freedom, security and justice. In October 1999 the European Council adopted its first work programme, which ran until 2004.

On 5 November 2004 the European Council approved the “Hague Programme : strengthening freedom, security and justice in the European Union”. This multi-annual programme (2005 – 2010) – responding to a central concern of the peoples of the States brought together in the Union – is intended to build on past achievements and to meet the new challenges:

"The objective of the Hague programme is to improve the common capability of the Union and its Member States to guarantee fundamental rights, minimum procedural safeguards and access to justice, to provide protection in accordance with the Geneva Convention on Refugees and other international treaties to persons in need, to regulate migration flows and to control the external borders of the Union, to fight organised cross-border crime and repress the threat of terrorism, to realise the potential of Europol and Eurojust, to carry further the mutual recognition of judicial decisions and certificates both in civil and in criminal matters, and to eliminate legal and judicial obstacles in litigation in civil and family matters with cross-border implications. This is an objective that has to be achieved in the interests of our citizens by the development of a Common Asylum System and by improving access to the courts, practical police and judicial cooperation, the approximation of laws and the development of common policies. "

An overview of the 33 page Hague Programme (16054/04), which presents the guidelines for the improvements to be made, gives a picture of the problems to be tackled:

I. INTRODUCTION
II. GENERAL ORIENTATIONS
1. General principles
2. Protection of fundamental rights
3. Implementation and evaluation
4. Review
III. SPECIFIC ORIENTATIONS
1. STRENGTHENING FREEDOM
1.1. Citizenship of the Union
1.2. Asylum, migration and border policy
1.3. A Common European Asylum System
1.4. Legal migration and the fight against illegal employment
1.5. Integration of third-country nationals
1.6. The external dimension of asylum and migration
1.6.1. Partnership with third countries
1.6.2. Partnership with countries and regions of origin
1.6.3. Partnership with countries and regions of transit
1.6.4. Return and re-admission policy
1.7 Management of migration flows
1.7.1. Border checks and the fight against illegal immigration
1.7.2. Biometrics and information systems
1.7.3. Visa policy
2. STRENGTHENING SECURITY
2.1. Improving the exchange of information
2.2. Terrorism
2.3. Police cooperation
2.4. Management of crises within the European Union with cross-border effects
2.5. Operational cooperation
2.6. Crime prevention
2.7. Organised crime and corruption
2.8. European strategy on drugs
3. STRENGTHENING JUSTICE
3.1. European Court of Justice
3.2. Confidence-building and mutual trust
3.3. Judicial cooperation in criminal matters
3.3.1. Mutual recognition
3.3.2. Approximation of law
3.3.3. Eurojust
3.4. Judicial cooperation in civil matters
3.4.1. Facilitating civil law procedure across borders
3.4.2. Mutual recognition of decisions
3.4.3. Enhancing cooperation
3.4.4. Ensuring coherence and upgrading the quality of EU legislation
3.4.5. International legal order
4. EXTERNAL RELATIONS


Detailed measures under the different headings are set out in the “Council and Commission Action Plan implementing the Hague Programme on strengthening freedom, security and justice in the European Union”, adopted by the Council on 2 June 2005 (9778/2/05).

The objective of the Action Plan is to translate the Hague Programme into specific measures. The Council and the Commission reiterated the importance which they attach to the correct and timely transposition of legislative acts adopted, to the effective implementation of measures agreed, and to their evaluation in practice.

The Action Plan is a detailed “to do” list with deadlines, specifying the concrete proposals to be made.

The Commission presents annual reports on the implementation of the Action Plan. The Commission’s first assessment of progress in implementing the Hague Programme was presented in 2006. The assessment package included four communications: an implementation report, an evaluation of policies, a communication on the way forward and a communication on providing more effective judicial protection.

Ralf Grahn

Council of Europe and European Union II

The origins of the European Union can be sought in the Schuman declaration 9 May 1950, which led to the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community by six countries the following year.

Fifty years ago, in 1957, the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community were established. The EEC evolved from a customs union and common market into a more political organisation, later becoming the European Community (EC) and, in 1992, the European Union. The EU has undergone two further treaty revisions (1997 and 2001) and a third one was unanimously signed by the member states in 2004, the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

The European Union is difficult to classify exactly, since it is an international organisation with strong elements of inter-governmental co-operation, but with unique supra-national decision making powers in certain fields. It has federal traits without being a full-blown federation.

Institutionally, the EU is complicated. The most important institution is still the Council, where the governments of the member states are represented. The Council has both law-making and executive powers. The Commission is an executive in the fields covered by Community law (the so called first pillar). The European Parliament is based on direct elections and has become co-legislator in many fields of Community legislation.

Enlargement has, in successive steps, brought the number of member states from six to 27, with some 450 million inhabitants.

The more the EU has become involved in new fields, and the more its legislation has become binding not only for the member states, but their companies and individual persons, the more it has become important to guarantee these individuals basic rights and judicial review.

Human rights and fundamental freedoms have come to stay on the agenda of the European Union.

The European Union and the EC Court of Justice partially face the same questions as the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights.

The Council of Europe has expressed its concern that the EU might encroach upon its core competencies, namely democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The CoE has pointed out that it has pan-European responsibilities, although EU members form a majority of its membership.

On the other hand, it looks clear that the European Union must enhance its own monitoring of proposed Community legislation and guarantee individuals judicial review.

How should the relationship between the Council of Europe and the European Union developed?

Ralf Grahn