The Stockholm Programme

At the meeting of the European Council on 5 November 2004, a five-year action plan for cooperation on judicial matters and home affairs was adopted. The plan, known as the Hague Programme, includes police and customs cooperation, rescue services, criminal and civil law cooperation, asylum, migration, visas and checks at external borders, etc. The first strategic action plan in the area of justice and home affairs was adopted in Tampere in 1999. The current plan, the Hague Programme, which was adopted in November 2004, expires in December 2009. Producing guidelines for future work in the form of a new action plan, the Stockholm Programme, will be a major and important negotiating task for the Swedish Presidency.

On 25 September 2008 the European Commission launched a public consultation on the scope of future cooperation directed at the Member States, national parliaments, the general public and other stakeholders. The Commission intends to produce a communication on the future programme in May 2009. (Communications are documents in which the Commission formally presents its view of the measures that need to be taken.) The programme will be discussed at the informal JHA Council in Stockholm in July 2009 and adopted at the Summit in December 2009.

The issues will affect several ministries in the Government Offices, including the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality