Comments of the Standing Committee of Experts on international immigration, refugee and criminal law for the Inter-parliamentary Conference

The Standing Committee took note of the Action Plan of the European Council and Commission `Towards an area of freedom, security and justice’ (OJ 1999/C 19/01). It can be concluded from this action plan, that the following months may be crucial for the development of European immigration, asylum and criminal law in the forthcoming decade. Now is the time for making fundamental choices for the implementation of the new fourth title of the EC Treaty which will enter into force with the Treaty of Amsterdam.
Moreover, important decisions are to be made on the harmonisation and approximation of the European criminal law which will set the framework for internal and external security cooperation.
The Standing Committee welcomes the inter-parliamentary debate which has been initiated by the European Parliament in the run-up to the General Council meeting in October in
Tampere. With this paper, The Standing Committee wishes to make a contribution to the discussion.