The Council took note of the state of work on the draft Regulation proposed by the Commission in July 1999, following the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty, aimed at transposing into a Community instrument the texts of the "frozen" draft Eurodac Convention and Protocol. The Council had reached agreement on these texts respectively in December 1998 and March 1999.
The Council took note of an intervention by the Danish delegation announcing Denmark's wish to take part in the Eurodac Regulation on an intergovernmental basis, in full respect of its Protocol to the Amsterdam Treaty. It should be noted that, in application of their respective Protocols to the Treaty, both Ireland and the United Kingdom have already notified their wish to take part in the adoption and application of the Eurodac Regulation.
The Council mandated its competent bodies to finalise work on the outstanding issues in sticking as closely as possible to the agreed text of the "frozen" draft Convention and Protocol, in order to reach agreement on this regulation by the end of this year. Due account will also be taken of the Opinion of the European Parliament, expected in November.
It should be noted that the two main outstanding questions concern the possibility of granting certain implementing powers to the Commission (comitology) and the territorial scope of the draft Regulation.�