Meeting of chairpersons of the parliamentary committees on justice and home affairs has been held at the Hellenic Parliament on February 16 and 17 within the parliamentary dimension of the Greek presidency of the Council of the EU. Next to the participation of the president of the Hellenic parliament Evangelos Meimarakis and other high European and Greek officials, the European Commissioner on Home Affairs Cecilia Malström participated at the meeting. On behalf of the Croatian Parliament the meeting was attended by Prof. Dr. Josip Kregar, president of the parliamentary committee on justice.
The meeting has been convened to discuss the priorities of the legislation in this field during the Greek presidency. It is even more important because some changes are expected after the European parliamentary elections and the beginning of mandate of the new European Commission. The meeting has concentrated on three main topics: European policy of migration, raising awareness against radical extremism and the overview of the Stockholm Programme and the way ahead. Migrations have three main dimensions : political (because they affect the changes of attitudes), economic (because there is a need for a labor force) and humanitarian (because there are people in need whose human rights are endangered). Keynote speaker Malström has agreed that the problem is global and that there should be burden- sharing by all European states and she as well argued for the stronger humanitarian approach and preventative activities in this field. She considers the regulation of asylum as the European legislative priority which has to be dealt by the incumbent European Commission. As far as raising awareness against violent extremism is concerned the need for a civic education in schools as well as communication with media has been particularly stressed. It should be noted that some time ago Croatia has prepared the document for the European Parliament about these issues:
https://bib.irb.hr/datoteka/523047.7_Josip_Kregar_Political_Extremism_LEKTORIRANO.doc
Overview of the Stockholm Programme and the way ahead was supposed to be the main topic of the gathering. The issues of asylum and Office of the European Public Prosecutor - OEPP are getting prominence in this framework and the debate has demonstrated that the ideas regarding transformation of Eurojust and OEPP are not interpreted in the same way by all participants. More and more the „collegial“ model is emphasized, advocated by Croatia as well. In this context the cooperation with the Ministry of justice and the Office of the main state attorney of Croatia has to be reinforced.
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