This year's last meeting of the Council of the European Union (Justice and Home Affairs) took place in Brussels on 12-13 December 2024
State Secretary Fadila Bahović participated in the meeting on behalf of the Minister of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation.
As part of the legislative deliberations, a general approach was adopted on the Directive on minimum rules against migrant smuggling and the Directive on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children.
The Republic of Croatia supported the adoption of a general approach with regard to both Directives, the objectives of which are to reduce differences in the practice of Member States in terms of punishing migrant smugglers and to bring sanctioning models as close as possible at EU level, i.e. to ensure that all forms of sexual abuse and exploitation of children, including those enabled or facilitated by technological development, are criminalised.
A partial general approach was adopted for the Directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of insolvency law, which aims to contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market and to remove obstacles to the exercise of fundamental freedoms, such as the free movement of capital and the freedom of establishment, resulting from differences in national laws and insolvency proceedings. Croatia supported the final compromise text of the Directive.
With regard to non-legislative activities, the state of play regarding legislative and operational planning in the area of freedom, security and justice was presented.
The Republic of Croatia supports all the elements highlighted in the draft strategic guidelines and believes that the document addresses all current challenges in these areas.
Improvement of competitiveness, expansion of the use of digital tools, fight against organised crime and terrorism, as well as the significant role of EU agencies in the framework of judicial cooperation in criminal matters are areas of utmost importance not only for the prosperity of the European Union but also for the protection and improvement of the lives of its citizens.
There was an exchange of views on the future of criminal law.
Croatia supports the inter-institutional discussion on model provisions on substantive criminal law, as they can significantly contribute to the coherence of European substantive criminal law, as well as to the realisation of the principle of predictability of the legal standard. Croatia considers however that the model provisions on substantive criminal law should be of binding nature.
During a working lunch, opinions were also exchanged on the development of AI systems in the field of justice.
Croatia considers that the most relevant uses of AI in the judicial context are those that improve the efficiency of judicial systems, enable the harmonisation of judicial decisions and facilitate cross-border cooperation between EU Member States, and that initiating joint discussions and cooperation between EU Member States on the use of AI in the judiciary is essential.
A progress report on the fight against drug trafficking and organised crime was presented.
Croatia strongly supports all EU efforts to strengthen the capacities of the judiciary and law enforcement authorities in the fight against organised crime, especially in view of the new challenges arising from technological developments.
The state of play of the fight against impunity in relation to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine was also presented.
Croatia supports the strengthening of cooperation between the International Criminal Court and Eurojust through the possible conclusion of an agreement between the two institutions to improve the delivery of evidence to the International Criminal Court, as highlighted in Eurojust's strategy of cooperation with international partners for the next three-year period.
The results of the Final Report on the 10th Round of Mutual Evaluations were also presented in relation to the strengthening of the European Investigation Order, which was supported by the Republic of Croatia.
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