merrion street

Minister of State James Browne, TD represented Ireland at the Justice and Home Affairs Council held in Brussels on the 8 and 9 December 2022.

Items for discussion on the Home Affairs day included: Overall state of the Schengen area; full application of the Schengen acquis in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania; cooperation between competent authorities dealing with counter-terrorism; improving the effectivity of EU return policy; Regulation on addressing situations of instrumentalisation in the field of migration and asylum; Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine; external dimension of migration; asylum and migration, and; Council recommendation on the resilience of critical entities.

Speaking on the topic of migration, the Minister said:

“The broad agenda gives a snapshot of the wide range of issues currently being discussed at EU level in the Justice and Home Affairs space and the Czech Presidency has allowed us to have detailed discussions on many of these issues this week. In particular, there was significant focus on various aspects of Migration, which is an ongoing challenge for the EU. Ireland welcomes the opportunity to share views with our EU counterparts to explore further ways of tackling this important topic and we will continue to support the work of the European Commission and the Council of the EU in that regard.”

Items for discussion on the Justice day included: Conclusions on the fight against impunity regarding crimes committed in connection with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine; Conclusions on enhancing the capacities of the EJCN; e-evidence; Directive on protection of the environment through criminal law; Digitalisation of judicial cooperation; Directive on asset recovery and confiscation; fight against antisemitism; Directive against strategic lawsuits against public participation; EU accession to the ECHR.

Speaking on the adoption of the conclusions on the fight against impunity regarding crimes committed in connection with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Minister said:

“Ireland welcomes the work done on this important topic and supports all initiatives to bring to account perpetrators of atrocity crimes, including war crimes, committed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. The war in Ukraine continues to dominate many discussions at EU level and we will continue to show our solidarity to one of our closest EU neighbours in our response.”

Speaking on the key legislative files, the Minister said:

“It was encouraging to discuss the progress made recently in the negotiation of some legislative files. Of note was the provisional political agreement reached by the European Parliament and the Council on the new rules for sharing of e-evidence across the EU. This is a long standing issue and Ireland looks forward to engaging further on the next steps. Ireland also welcomes the discussion on the proposal for a Directive on asset recovery and confiscation, which is a topic that Ireland has strongly been engaged in since publication of the proposal. We will continue to work with the European Commission on this measure to strengthen the EU’s response to the ever-evolving fight against organised crime.”

ENDS