On 17 June
2004 the European Council decided to examine implementation of this Action
Plan twice a year.
With the
assistance of the Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, Gijs de Vries, the Luxembourg
Presidency has updated the version of the Action Plan submitted to the
European Council in December 2004.
The text
approved the JHA Council today will be forwarded to the General Affairs
Council and then to the European Council for adoption.
Overall, the
EU Institutions, agencies and services have made progress in implementing the
measures set out in the Action Plan:
- several
important pieces of legislation have been adopted or are in the process
of adoption, particularly in the area of JHA and the fight against
financing of terrorism;
- the peer
review of anti-terrorism arrangements in the 25 Member States is almost
complete and the final report will be submitted to the Council next
October;
- the
Situation Centre (SitCen) has begun to produce analyses incorporating
intelligence from internal and external sources. Moreover, a cooperation
agreement between SitCen and Europol will be finalised before the end of
the Luxembourg Presidency;
- both Europol
and Eurojust have intensified their counter-terrorism activities;
- the Police
Chiefs Task Force has developed an interesting draft initiative to
support community policing;
- the
implementation of the strategy to counter financing of terrorism is
progressing satisfactorily;
- the external
aspect has also developed in line with the guidelines adopted by the
European Council last December.
However, the
time lag between the general approach and formal adoption by the Council of legislation
under the third pillar is too long. The Council took note of the work which
must be accomplished before the end of the year, particularly as regards
civil protection and protection of critical infrastructure.