EU ministers target better justice cooperation (Roundup)

Jul 16, 2009, 12:38 GMT

Stockholm - European Union interior ministers on Thursday began debating a five-year justice plan aimed at boosting cooperation between member states on legal matters at a meeting in Stockholm.

'Our discussions have focused on cooperation concerning trans-border crime and how we can make this more efficient. Above all, we're discussing how police and prosecutors can improve their possibilities to use pre-existing tools,' Swedish Interior Minister Beatrice Ask, who chaired the meeting, said.

In particular, the so-called Stockholm Programme on EU justice cooperation should focus on training law-enforcement officials to work on cross-border cases.

'The main concern is to improve the training of all those who play a public-order role. They need to be trained better and know who each other are in order to make sure that we build up trust,' EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said.

It should also train them to use the EU's international computer data bases on issues such as criminal records, visa applications and fingerprint records.

'We have all these new information technologies which we will be using ... Now the issue is to make sure that police officers know how to use that technology,' Barrot said.

And it should find new ways of blocking criminals' bank accounts and taking back the money they make from crime, Ask said.

'One issue which pops up all the time is the need to actually make it more difficult for criminals to use their assets or gains from crime. Many (ministers) see this as the answer to how we can achieve better results,' she said.

Sweden is the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, and is tasked with finalizing negotiations on the Stockholm Programme by the end of the year.

Ministers are currently reviewing a proposal from the commission, the EU's executive. They will draft a revised version of that proposal in October, Ask said.

The EU is divided into 27 member states, each with its own legal, judicial and policing systems, making it difficult for officials in any one country to deal with cross-border criminal operations.

The bloc has been working on the issue for 10 years, pushing for more cross-border training and setting up harmonized systems such as the European arrest warrant, a standardized system with which police in one country can demand the arrest and extradition of a suspect in another member state.

Swedish officials say that the Stockholm Programme will try go still further by setting up, for example, a centralized database to cover the bloc's various security computer systems, and mandating that half of all judicial staff and a third of EU policemen receive training in cross-border issues.

'It's a question that practitioners can use what's already there and find good methods to cooperate,' Ask said.

Sweden also wants the programme to focus on the rights of citizens by improving their access to cross-border services such as courtroom interpretation.