On 5 March 2024, the Minister of Justice, Elisabeth Margue, took part in the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) of the European Union in Brussels, under the Belgian Presidency.
Discussions focused on the directive aimed at establishing minimum rules to prevent the smuggling of migrants, underlining the need to step up our coordinated action. The Minister of Justice, Elisabeth Margue, has highlighted the danger posed by people smugglers, exposing migrants to violence and mortal danger. The Minister stated that "it is important to modernise joint legal responses to step up the fight against multi-crime networks of people smugglers".
The ministers also reviewed the progress made in judicial cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking and organised crime. Given that these offences are generally of a cross-border or international nature, cooperation within the European Union and with third countries is essential.
The ministers then discussed the appropriate instruments for ensuring the resilience of the judicial system in the face of criminal organisations under the rule of law. The ministers discussed the risks of threats and intimidation, particularly in the context of single-judge judicial proceedings, where such behaviour may be more prevalent. Elisabeth Margue raised the possibility of incorporating awareness of these risks into magistrates' training and putting in place measures such as a contact point within the judiciary for reporting such threats and drawing up codes of conduct for dealing with such situations.
During the lunch debate, the European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin and the President of Eurojust Ladislav Hamran informed the ministers of their progress in the fight against impunity and in the prosecution of those responsible for war crimes in connection with the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Press release by the Ministry of Justice