Second Day of the Justice Minister in the European Parliament
Following the presentation of the Presidency agenda in the area of justice in the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil addressed the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE).
‘In a Europe without barriers, it is necessary to strengthen the legal certainty of citizens, and thus ensure that their legal affairs are governed by unambiguous and predictable rules,’ stated minister Pospíšil in his introduction.
In today’s address he emphasised the finalisation of the evaluation of the European Arrest Warrant. ‘We consider the finalisation of this evaluation during the course of the Czech Presidency highly important.’ The conclusion of the informal meeting of ministers for justice and home affairs, which was held in Prague last Friday, was the fact that the European Arrest Warrant is the most important tool of penal and procedural law. Its utilisation in the Member States has already brought the first success –the speeding up of handing offenders over between individual Member States to forty days on average. This fulfils our motto of increased efficiency and speed of legal proceedings.’
The members of the European Parliament responded positively to the intended evaluation of the European Arrest Warrant. They appraised this tool as a great success but they also remarked that it should focus only on serious criminal activity and not on minor offences. The members of the European Parliament also appreciated the support for a discussion on the topic of conflict of jurisdictions and minimal standards in criminal proceedings.
According to the Czech minister, the Council should also discuss the creation of mechanisms that would enable the Member States to enter into contractual relations with third states independently, even in an area that is exclusively in the competence of the Union.
The Czech Minister of Justice further expects the Commission to submit an amendment to the Framework Decision of the Council on combating the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, and the Framework Decision on combating trafficking in human beings in March/April. During discussions in all the EU institutions, we are ready to exert maximum effort to increase the efficiency of cooperation in this area,’ stated Jiří Pospíšil.
In the European Parliament the Justice Minister also summed up the conclusions of the informal meeting of ministers in Prague regarding the provision Rome III that should prepare conflict-of-law norms in the area of family law and which has caused frequent responses in the past days. This meeting did not reach consensus. Nine countries asked the Commission to submit a proposal for joint cooperation in this area and now the Member States must wait for the conclusions of the Commission. The proposal is currently supported by ten countries. If the Commission submits the proposal, the Czech Republic is prepared to discuss it and lead the discussion of the Member States to concrete conclusions.
The members of the Committee of the European Parliament appreciated the Presidency programme of the Czech Ministry of Justice and its selection of topics. They also welcomed the statement that the Czech Presidency will ask the Commission for financial funds to support the creation of a system for cross-border video-conferencing.
contact:
- Petra Střítecká, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Justice for the Czech Presidency
- tel.: +420 221 997 261, GSM: +420 737 247 353; e-mail:pstritecka@msp.justice.cz
Last update: 16.8.2011 15:51
