Informele JBZ-Raad vergadert over Stockholmprogramma (en)

The informal meeting between the EU's ministers for justice and home affairs (JHA) is being held in Stockholm on 15—17 July. The most important issue at the meeting will be the "Stockholm Programme” – a new programme detailing what the JHA cooperation will look like in the next few years. Negotiations on the programme will take place this autumn.

Minister for Justice Beatrice Ask and Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy Tobias Billström are hosting the meeting. It is expected to be one of the largest of the eleven informal ministerial meetings taking place in Sweden during the Presidency, with approximately 350 - 400 participants. 

The Stockholm Programme encompasses all the areas included in the EU’s JHA cooperation and includes issues such as police and customs cooperation, rescue services, criminal and civil law cooperation, asylum and migration issues and visas and external border controls.

”The Stockholm Programme is crucial to how this cooperation will look in the next five years. Our position is that it should be based on the individual citizen”, says Minister for Justice Beatrice Ask.

"The fight against cross-border crime is an area in which European cooperation can play a central role. With a clear citizen’s perspective, we can both increase security by fighting crime effectively and safeguard the integrity and fundamental rights of the individual”, she adds.

The Swedish Presidency also views asylum and migration issues as matters of high priority. The EU has made progress in the work on a common asylum policy, but there are still issues that remain to be solved. 

”It is important that the work on preparing a common asylum system continues so that asylum applications can be processed in a way that is legally secure and harmonised. More practical cooperation is required to tackle the great disparities between the Member States that we see today”, says Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy Tobias Billström. 

Another part of the Stockholm Programme that the Swedish Presidency will put a lot of energy into is labour immigration, where the Swedish Presidency will continue working for common rules allowing increased labour immigration to the EU.

”Migration that is effectively handled can be positive for countries of origin, receiving countries and migrants alike. The EU has an ageing population and therefore needs a policy that meets this challenge, to which labour migration may be one of the solutions”, says Tobias Billström.