Wednesday, July 15, 2009
"Stockholm Programme" Discussed at EU Ministerial Meetings
Today marks the beginning of EU ministerial meetings taking place in Stockholm. A major item on the agenda is the so-called Stockholm Programme which will seek to establish a framework for cooperation among EU countries (and potentially non-EU countries as well) to deal with issues in crime and law enforcement, customs, and immigration. A number of organizations have expressed concern over the potentially far-reaching surveillance aspects that may be associated with the project. For more information, see this press release on the website of the Swedish presidency of the EU and this report from EDRI with related links.
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I wrote to Philip Bradbourn MEP regarding the Stockholm Programme and he assures me that, because of the UK's opt out from Asylum and Immigration Policy, we are totally unaffected by this policy! I would welcome your views on this.
ReplyDeleteGill Chant
Thanks for your comment, Gill. I’m by no means an expert on EU-UK relations. But, as far as I understand it, both the UK and Ireland have adopted a case-by-case approach as opposed to a full-blown opt-out. In other words, the two countries can pick and choose to opt-in to new EU immigration and asylum regulation as it emerges. I don't imagine the UK’s position has any implications for intra-EU migration, including the ability of a third country national to settle in the UK after having acquired citizenship in another EU Member State.
ReplyDeleteBut your comment touches on the issue of the interdependence of the Stockholm Programme and Schengen Agreement. As you probably know, the UK is not a party to the Schengen Agreement, which is why the UK still has passport checks at the airport for EU travellers. I would need to take a closer look to say for sure, but I haven’t seen anything that suggests that a country would need to be a part of the Schengen Agreement in order to participate in the Stockholm Programme. If there isn’t any such condition, then I suppose that the UK will be able to choose or reject those parts of the Programme that concern immigration and asylum policy as the UK sees fit. In fact, I’m lead to wonder whether the Programme might allow the UK to gain some of the advantages of Schengen (e.g. access to the Schengen Information System or something like it) without having to give up its border controls. Moreover, don’t forget about the counter-terrorist and criminal law aspects of the Programme.
At any rate, the UK does appear to be contributing to the development of the Stockholm Programme. You can find copies of some of the statements of the UK delegation on Statewatch's website (http://www.statewatch.org/future-group.htm). In particular, I'd encourage you to have a look at this document: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/nov/eu-stockholm-programme-uk-contribution.pdf. Of course, just because the UK wishes to influence developments doesn't necessarily mean that it will sign up in the end. But, I suspect that the UK would be very much in favor of increased information exchange and police and intelligence cooperation among Member States insofar as this helps the UK to advance its own interests and policies - including with respect to immigration and asylum. I'd also imagine that the UK would be willing to adopt any new EU standards in terms of entry requirements for third country nationals (i.e. what data is collected from immigrants and where it is stored) so long as it didn't interfere with the UK's decision-making in accepting or rejecting immigrants and asylum-seekers.