EN Official Journal of the European Union C 42/49

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on ‘Delivering an area of freedom, security and justice for Europe’s citizens — Action Plan implementing the Stockholm programme’

2011/C 42/10

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

— wishes, as part of its shared responsibility for the implementation of European citizenship, the subsidiarity principle, multilevel governance and the implementation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, to contribute to a healthy ‘culture of fundamental rights’;

— notes that, as the level of government closest to the people, local and regional authorities have a particular commitment to the principles of political participation as laid down in the Lisbon Treaty and in national and regional constitutions; therefore recommends looking into giving EU citizens more extensive opportunities to take part in elections in their country of residence;

— points out that it is necessary to build a real foundation of trust and thorough understanding of the legal systems of other Member States in order to implement the Stockholm programme, and that local and regional authorities could contribute to this, not least as part of their urban and regional partnerships;

— notes that local and regional authorities have a key role in implementing a comprehensive data protection system focused on fundamental rights, and also a particular shared responsibility with regard to crime prevention and administrative approaches to preventing and fighting corruption and organised crime;

— once again stresses the need – with reference to the social dimension of ever-increasing poverty-related migration – for a European immigration and asylum policy that has been coordinated with local and regional authorities and is based on respect for human rights, solidarity and responsibility; and would therefore also welcome the appointment of a European representative for migration, refugees and integration at the European Parliament to deal in particular with the specific problems encountered by third-country nationals.

Rapporteur : Holger Poppenhäger (DE/PES), Minister of Justice of the Free State of Thuringia Reference document : Delivering an area of freedom, security and justice for Europe's citizens – Action Plan Implementing the Stockholm Programme COM(2010) 171 final

I. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

1. is pleased that the Commission has been quick to present an action plan setting out a comprehensive agenda for implementing the Stockholm programme designed to deliver an area of freedom, security and justice. This facilitates the systematic and targeted involvement of all stakeholders;

2. welcomes the action plan's objective of ‘advancing people's Europe’, thus ensuring that citizens can exercise their rights fully;

3. again stresses the need to ensure that all fundamental rights and freedoms continue to be respected in the creation of a secure Europe;

4. points out that local and regional authorities already bear much of the responsibility for enforcing these rights in practice, and therefore trusts that they will be fully involved from the pre-legislative process onwards in line with multilevel governance and taking due account of the subsidiarity principle;

5. will look at establishing its own database of examples of best practice by local and regional authorities with regard to the area of freedom, security and justice;

A Europe of fundamental rights

6. notes that the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union recognises the indivisibility of the fundamental rights and freedoms of every individual, irrespective of their nationality or immigration status. The Committee stresses that fully respecting, protecting and promoting these rights is among the most important duties of the European Union's bodies and institutions, of the Member States, of regional parliaments and governments, and of local officials and elected representatives;

7. draws attention to the important role played, in particular, by initiatives led by local and regional authorities and civil society groups in combating exclusion, racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and homophobia;

8. calls for improvements in the protection of minorities and of vulnerable groups and individuals;

9. encourages regions and local authorities to gradually re-evaluate their existing law, including their constitutions, and to examine new legislation in the light of the Charter and European constitutional developments, especially European anti-discrimination provisions;

10. wishes to contribute to a healthy ‘culture of fundamental rights’ in the context of multilevel governance and in close cooperation with the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, and therefore asks the Commission to report regularly to the CoR too on the steps it has taken to contribute to the effective enforcement of fundamental rights;

11. welcomes the trilateral cooperation, launched in 2009, between the Commission, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and the CoR, and calls for it to be stepped up and extended;

A policy for citizens

12. is clear that the right to complete freedom of movement and active grassroots involvement in the political process are key elements of EU citizenship;

13. notes that, as the level of government closest to the people, local and regional authorities have a particular obligation to implement the principles of participation, as laid down in national and regional constitutions and in the Lisbon Treaty;

14. therefore recommends looking into the possibility of extending EU citizens’ voting rights beyond local and European elections;

15. supports moves to give third-country nationals legally resident in the EU the opportunity to participate in the political process at local level, subject to the duration of their residency;

16. agrees with the European Parliament, the Commission and the European Council that the European Citizens’ Initiative as laid down in the Lisbon Treaty will also strengthen the EU's democratic legitimacy;

17. highlights the need for EU citizens to have wide-ranging access to information to enable them to play an active part in the political process; would also like to see such access to information provided for in the Member States and calls on its members to work to achieve this;

A European judicial area – strengthening confidence

18. is pleased that, thanks to decisive progress made in civil and criminal law under the Lisbon Treaty, the European judicial area has now become a tangible reality for the grassroots public;

19. stresses that, for the principle of mutual recognition of legal systems to become established, it will be necessary to increase mutual trust, not least by introducing minimum standards;

20. therefore believes that exchanges of judges, public prosecutors and other members of the judiciary – especially as part of the European Judicial Network, but also on the basis of existing urban and regional partnerships – will be of benefit here and should be further promoted;

21. in the interests of continuing the development of a European legal culture, would also urge a broad-based exchange of information on experience gained with alternative criminal penalties, existing models such as alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and the various systems in place for legal training and further training;

22. believes that a ‘common reference framework’ would make a key contribution to giving a more European focus to legislation and to more effective enforcement;

23. urges that, for future legislation, an impact assessment focusing on fundamental rights be carried out and due account taken of the financial, economic and social impact on the regions;

Safeguarding a free and secure Europe

24. stresses that local and regional authorities bear a particular responsibility for the security of the resident population and the development of a European legal culture based on human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity. This is the single most important step in combating racism and xenophobia;

25. highlights the key importance for any democratic society of freedom of association, as laid down in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and is, at the same time, concerned about the manipulation of this fundamental right for xenophobic, racist or extremist purposes;

26. thus feels there is an urgent need to step up and improve administrative cooperation and exchanges of information on best practices between the competent authorities in order to safeguard the free right of association;

27. welcomes the proposal to implement the action plan on violent radicalisation and asks that consideration be given to the possible introduction of Europe-wide minimum standards for criminal sanctions applicable to politically motivated extremist actions;

28. welcomes the proposal set out in the action plan to assess the Member States’ anti-corruption measures, and notes that this requires a prevention-based administrative culture and a high degree of transparency in administrative procedure;

29. shares the view of the European data protection supervisor that, in the global information society, safeguarding privacy is of vital importance. It is therefore essential to apply fundamental rights consistently to data protection, with regard not only to law enforcement and crime protection but also to international relations;

30. feels that, given their experience in this field, local and regional authorities should be involved in the continued development of data protection from an early stage and on an ongoing basis;

31. welcomes the forthcoming revision of Directive 2006/24/EC on data retention, and trusts that it will also take due account of the Charter of Fundamental Rights;

32. shares the intention of the ‘digital agenda’ that guaranteeing data protection and data security – including in agreements with third countries and when examining new business models for the online economy – should increase people's trust in modern communication technologies and thus eliminate a significant barrier to the development of such technologies;

33. feels that the use of video surveillance by public and private operators requires critical examination;

34. reaffirms the points made in its opinions on the sexual exploitation of children, child pornography, human trafficking and the protection of unaccompanied minors; draws particular attention to its opinion CdR 136/2006 fin and stresses the need to create special financial instruments, in the context of implementing the Commission's action plan on unaccompanied minors, in order to take due account of the particular circumstances of such minors and of the regions taking them in;

35. highlights the need to evaluate the effectiveness of EU measures for protecting victims to date and the implementation thereof as part of the regular reporting required under EU rules;

36. would repeat, against the current backdrop of cross-border climate-related natural disasters such as floods and wildfires, that local and regional authorities have a key role to play in risk prevention;

37. reiterates its call for a balanced, shared overall EU concept for civil protection that gives the Member States scope to set their own priorities;

38. looks forward to the evaluation, announced in the action plan, of the EU's civil protection policy instruments, and to the communication on the reinforcement of the EU's disaster response capacity, and emphatically welcomes the proposals on the renewal of the European civil protection financial instrument;

39. points out the important role played by local and regional authorities in crime prevention, and calls for their involvement at an early stage in evaluating the European crime prevention network, in establishing an observatory for the prevention of crime and in the administrative approach to preventing and fighting organised crime;

40. urges that, under the proposed measures relating to crime statistics, particular care should be taken to ensure that the figures involved are in fact meaningful;

Developing a European asylum and immigration policy

41. once again stresses the need – with reference to the social dimension of ever-increasing poverty-related migration – for a European immigration and asylum policy that has been coordinated with local and regional authorities and is based on respect for human rights, solidarity and responsibility;

42. agrees with the European Parliament that Europe's border regions do not currently receive enough support, and therefore calls on the Commission to include, in its planned communication on enhanced intra-EU solidarity, proposals for solidarity-based refugee distribution and for immediate measures to reduce the pressure on affected regions;

Migration

43. welcomes an immigration policy that starts in the countries of origin but also takes account of European labour market needs and demographic change;

44. calls for a more coherent legislative framework for family reunification and feels that any further relaxation in visa agreements needs to be handled with due sensitivity;

45. welcomes, in principle, the measures proposed in the action plan to curb illegal immigration over the long term;

46. stresses that the proposed measures must not undermine European and international protection for refugees;

47. laments the Commission's failure to include in its action plan any proposals or initiatives, underpinned by European fundamental rights, designed to coordinate procedures for people without residence permits, and trusts that these people's needs will be factored into the forthcoming amendment to the Directive defining the facilitation of unauthorised entry, transit and residence, and into the report on the Directive providing for minimum standards on sanctions and measures against employers of illegally staying third-country nationals;

48. believes that repatriation programmes should, as a matter of principle, be operated on a purely voluntary basis and in line with the goals of development cooperation, and that repatriation should result in the long-term social integration of the people concerned;

49. finds it regrettable that the action plan does not currently provide for any improvement in the rights and obligations of people from third countries;

50. stresses the need, also in the areas of migration and asylum policy, for compliance with data protection rules when implementing and assessing the data security and data exchange measures proposed in the action plan;

51. welcomes the proposed measures to promote integration and, to that end, calls for the CoR to be involved from an early stage in drafting the communication on an EU agenda for integration and in developing the proposed coordination mechanism;

52. with regard to the proposed statistical measures, cautions on the need for an appropriate balance to be struck between the knowledge gained and the effort expended;

53. would welcome the appointment of a European representative for migration, refugees and integration at the European Parliament to deal in particular with the specific problems encountered by third-country nationals;

Asylum policy

54. calls on the European Parliament and the Council to put into practice without delay the action plan's proposal to develop comparable criteria and grounds for asylum decisions;

55. feels that the accommodation offered to asylum seekers must meet minimum standards that satisfy the requirements of fundamental and human rights; the same also goes for rules on asylum seekers’ freedom of movement;

Global Europe – the foreign policy aspects of the area of freedom, security and justice

56. is pleased that, under the Lisbon Treaty, the EU's external relations can be made more effective, with a greater focus on human-rights and development-policy goals;

57. welcomes the Commission's assurance that it, together with the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the Commission, will ensure coherence between external relations and the external dimension of justice and home affairs and development cooperation;

58. welcomes the fact that the action plan also discusses common interests in connection with legal and illegal migration (immigration, asylum, border management cooperation), and takes due account of factors such as the fight against terrorism and crime, geographical priorities on specific issues, basic parameters for sharing information, guarantees for the protection of fundamental and human rights, transparency and freedom of information, data protection and associated guaranteed legal protections for EU citizens and third-country nationals;

59. urges that the Council of Europe's Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, the Euro-Mediterranean Assembly of Local and Regional Authorities (ARLEM), the Eastern Partnership platforms and other relevant networks should be involved in discussions on matters relating to the external dimension of the area of freedom, security and justice;

60. feels that it is important to make use of, and to reinforce, local and regional authorities’ considerable potential in cross-border cooperation on issues relating to the area of freedom, security and justice, particularly on issues relating to the integration of migrants and asylum seekers;

61. considers it necessary to undertake regular evaluations in this field, in order to ensure that the actions under this new EU foreign policy are implemented effectively and consistently.