Finns aim to broker justice and development deals

Justice and home affairs will prove to be controversial subjects during the Finnish presidency as some member states and the European Commission seek greater EU harmonisation while others resist it.

A Justice and Home Affairs Council, just weeks into the presidency, will begin a broad discussion of key areas on which efforts must be concentrated. But an informal justice ministers' meeting in September in Tampere will be a chance for member states to thrash out positions.

It was in Tampere in October 1999 that EU member states agreed to greater unity on justice, freedom and security. Since then, various EU-wide laws in these areas have been introduced.

The big topic will be a European Commission proposal to use a provision from the Amsterdam treaty to move certain justice matters out of intergovernmental law, where national vetoes apply, and towards community law, with the possibility of using qualified majority voting. The thinking behind the plan is that this mechanism would speed up approval of justice issues and also increase transparency - since the European Parliament would have co-decision over proposals and the European Court of Justice will be able to rule on their enforcement. But while some member states, such as France and Finland, are eager to see this come into force, others, such as Germany and Ireland, will put up some opposition. As ministers will have to approve the idea unanimously, it is far from certain that the matter will be approved in the December European Council, as the Commission hopes. "We're not sure if we can finalise it during the presidency but at least we want to open it," said one Finnish diplomat.

Immigration will be another big topic, with the Commission to come up with a communication on illegal immigration. A conference in Rabat, Morocco, between EU and African states on 10-11 July will seek to identity long-term solutions to the problem. Finland also wants to see progress on the implementation of the asylum procedures directive - for which the Commission has yet to unveil a list of 'safe countries' from which asylum applicants can be fast-tracked. Greater movement on a common asylum system will also be pursued by the presidency including a discussion on the functioning of Dublin II, the convention determining the state responsible for examining applications for asylum. Under this, asylum-seekers must apply for political asylum in the EU state in which they first arrived.

Two thorny issues will get carried over from the Austrian presidency in the hope that deadlock in the Council can be overcome by Finland. A proposal to establish minimum standards for criminal suspects has been opposed by states who feel it does not go far enough and those who think it goes too far. This is an important proposal for some member states and the Commission, which sees it as a way of balancing recent proposals on making extraditions and the collection and transfer of evidence from a crime quicker and simpler among member states. But there is opposition from Germany and Ireland to a binding set of standards.

A plan to set up a fundamental rights agency suffered a major set-back at a recent meeting of foreign ministers when Germany said it would cost too much and overlap with the human rights body, the Council of Europe. Germany along with other states is also against the agency having powers of review over police and judicial matters. Germany's stance came after months of negotiations on the shape the agency should take and was seen as a body-blow to the entire concept. Finland can expect hours of talks ahead on this one.

• Given the declarations and commitments from major development summits last year, Finland says it now wants to see a focus on implementation. The Paris declaration on aid effectiveness, the United Nations Millennium Review Summit on progress on the goals for achieving poverty eradication, EU member states commitments to increase the amount of aid and the Africa strategy tried to refocus develop-ment policy and set new targets for achieving more in a faster timeframe. EU trade and development ministers will be asked to attend a meeting in October to try to achieve greater coherence between the two policies. Finland will also be setting out EU priorities in migration and development ahead of a UN summit in September. Coherence among member states on their development work abroad is another key area for the presidency. The major issue is the Commission's proposal on development co-operation. Parliament opposed several elements, including the removing of co-decision, and negot-iations are ongoing between the three EU institutions. But there is an urgency to this issue: if there is no compromise by the end of the year it will not be possible to fund new development projects.

Justice and home affairs will prove to be controversial subjects during the Finnish presidency as some member states and the European Commission seek greater EU harmonisation while others resist it.

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