EU Justice and Home Affairs Council

The meeting of the JHA Council took place in Brussels on 9 December 2025. On behalf of the Ministry of Justice, Administration and Digital Transformation, the meeting was attended by Permanent Representative of Croatia to the European Union Irena Andrassy

As part of the legislative deliberations, the Presidency informed the Council about current legislative proposals.

Among the non-legislative activities, the state of play in further steps to simplify the application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was presented.

Since its adoption in 2016, the GDPR has become one of the key pieces of Union legislation aimed at strengthening the protection of personal data and fostering trust in cross-border data flows across the Union, translated into the day-to-day activities of organisations and individuals.

However, the Council underlined persisting challenges in its practical implementation for both private and public organisations, and expressed the need to explore measures to facilitate compliance with the GDPR, in particular for smaller entities. Further steps are related to the possibility of simplification within the existing legal framework as well as targeted amendments to the GDPR.

Conclusions on model provisions for substantive EU criminal law were adopted. The Conclusions include provisions on criminal offences, incitement and aiding and abetting, penalties for both natural and legal persons, provisions on mitigating and aggravating circumstances, liability of legal persons, jurisdiction, limitation periods, statistics and training of judicial and other practitioners.

Furthermore, views were exchanged on the fight against impunity in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, in particular on cooperation between national authorities and the Special Tribunal and support to the International Criminal Court related to the situation in Ukraine.

Croatia welcomes the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine and supports the work of the International Criminal Court. It will continue to provide assistance to Ukraine through the exchange of knowledge and experience in the national prosecution of war crimes and the EU accession process, with a special focus on Chapter 23 - Judiciary and Fundamental Rights.

The state of play of the fight against drug trafficking and organised crime was also presented. Croatia welcomed the report on the implemented activities related to priority actions and pointed out further need to continue with them in order to fight as successfully as possible.

The Commission briefed the Council on the EU Drugs Strategy and the EU Action Plan against Drug Trafficking, and the Presidency briefed the Council on access to data for effective criminal investigations and the EU-US Justice and Home Affairs ministerial meeting (Washington DC).

In addition, the Council was briefed on the EU-Western Balkans Ministerial Forum on Justice and Home Affairs, held in Sarajevo on 30 and 31 October 2025, with the Commission providing information on digital justice and judicial training strategy and the 2025 Charter Report, i.e. an overview of the implementation strategy to strengthen the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the EU.

At the end of the meeting, the Belgian Representation informed the Council about investigative measures for cross-border recovery of criminal assets in the execution phase, while the Cyprus Representation presented the work programme of the incoming Presidency.
 
PHOTO: European Union

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