Opposition Day — Rejoining of 35 European Union Justice and Home Affairs Measures — 19 Nov 2014 at 18:36

The majority of MPs voted for the UK to rejoin a series of European Union schemes for closer police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters.

The motion supported by the majority of MPs in this vote stated:

• That this House endorses the Government’s formal application to rejoin 35 European Union Justice and Home Affairs measures, including the European Arrest Warrant.

In July 2013 the UK took a decision^[1] to opt out of 130 European Union measures in the field of police co-operation and judicial co-operation in criminal matters.^[2]

The UK Government identified 35 measures it wished to rejoin prior to the opt out decision taking effect on 1 December 2014^[1]. These 35 European Union measures, to which the motion relates, are listed, and explained, in the Explanatory memorandum to The Criminal Justice and Data Protection (Protocol No. 36) Regulations 2014^[3].

The measures relate to:

• The European Arrest Warrant which is designed to speed up the extradition process between Member States, reducing the potential for administrative delay under previous extradition arrangements.
• The Asset Recovery Office
• Combating indecent images of children
• Confiscation and Freezing Orders
• The Customs Information System
• The Data Protection Secretariat
• "ECRIS" measures which require Member States to inform each other about convictions of EU nationals in another Member State and permit Member States to request the previous convictions of individuals from the Member State of nationality.
• The European Judicial Network
• Eurojust
• Europol
• European Supervision Order
• FADO, a computerised archive containing images and textual information relating to falsified and authentic identity documents such as passports, identity cards, visas, residence permits and driving licences.
• Financial Intelligence Units
• Football Safety and Security
• International Undertakings in the Fight of Organised Crime (GENVAL)
• Joint Investigation Teams (“JITs”)
• Mutual Recognition of Financial Penalties
• Customs co-operation and mutual assistance
• Prisoner Transfer Framework Decision
• The Swedish Initiative, which seeks to simplify the exchange of information and intelligence between law enforcement authorities in Member States for the purposes of conducting criminal investigations or criminal intelligence operations.
• Taking Into Account Convictions
• The recognition of decisions handed down in absentia in different ways and the mutual recognition of judgments
• A common level of protection and an appropriate level of security when Member States exchange personal data within the framework of police and judicial cooperation
• The Schengen Convention (as amended by two measures which are also listed) aims to tackle the threat of cross-border crime by facilitating police cooperation and cross-border surveillance.
• SIS II, the new EU database for swapping alerts between Member States in relation to missing and wanted people and objects.

[There are less than 35 items in the list as a some of the listed schemes involve a number of measures (European Union decisions)]

An effect of the opt-out of the 130 measures was preventing the Court of Justice of the European Union gaining jurisdiction over these measures in relation to the UK.^[2]

• [1] Decision pursuant to Article 10(5) of Protocol 36 to The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, 3 July 2014
• [2] Command Paper 8671 Decision pursuant to Article 10(5) of Protocol 36 to The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, July 2014
• [3] The Criminal Justice and Data Protection (Protocol No. 36) Regulations 2014

Debate in Parliament | Source |