EU-RUSSIA JHA PERMANENT PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL READOUT

UNCLAS HELSINKI 001112 SIPDIS FOR EUR/ERA AND EUR/RUS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KJUS PHUM PTER EUN FI RU SUBJECT: EU-RUSSIA JHA PERMANENT PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL READOUT ¶1. The EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council on Justice and Home Affairs met in Helsinki on 30 October. The Finnish Minister of Justice Luhtanen and Minister of the Interior Rajamaki represented the Presidency, German Minister of Justice Zypries and Minister of the Interior Schauble represented the next Presidency, and Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Frattini represented the EU. Minister of Justice Ustinov, Minister of the Interior Nurgalijev, General Public Prosecutor Chaika, and Presidential Aide Viktor Ivanov represented Russia. The agenda included discussions on trafficking in persons (TIP),terrorism, drugs, organized crime, and judicial cooperation. ¶2. In the closing press conference attended by Emboff, Frattini emphasized tangible results from the day's discussions including the upcoming entry into force of EU-Russia visa agreements, a commitment to meet again during the Finnish Presidency at the expert level with Russian and US representatives on counterterrorism, and an agreement on EU-Russia data exchange on radicalization and recruitment of Islamic youth. Rajamaki highlighted the Seminar on the Identification of Children at Risk of Becoming Victims of Human Trafficking (taking place 31 October in Helsinki with several US participants) as an example of multilateral cooperation on justice issues. Luhtanen called on Moscow to ratify the Hague Convention on Child Abduction and the Council of Europe Convention on Money Laundering to strengthen Russia's efforts in these areas and to bind Russia to existing European structures. Ivanov and Chaika used their statements to call attention to discussions on visa facilitation and readmission policies, as 4 million people cross between the EU and Russia annually. (Comment: Zypries and Schauble did not attend the press conference; Ustinov and Nurgalijev remained at the back of the room with security personnel.) ¶3. During the question and answer session, Luhtanen opined that the future of EU-Russia JHA cooperation might be found in the extensive Finland-Russia cooperation that currently takes place outside EU fora; she said that perhaps the next steps were to make these arrangements multilateral rather than continuing in a bilateral format. Rajamaki pointed out that the EU and Russia are seeing increasing radicalization of second generation immigrant Muslim youth and that this pointed to a failure to adequately integrate immigrant populations rather than a failure of immigration policy per se. Chaika was peppered with queries about the Anna Politkovskaya murder after he mentioned, in response to an unrelated question, that he is personally responsible for the investigation. Finnish television and print media were particularly hard on this issue, eliciting irritation from Chaika. Once the questions moved to illegal drug trafficking, Ivanov opined that the flow of heroin into Russia and the EU from Afghanistan was as much a socio-economic problem within Afghanistan as it was a border and justice problem within Europe and Russia. ¶4. The joint statement issued by the PPC, in addition to the issues discussed above, welcomed increased cooperation between the EU border security agency (Frontex) and the Russian border service and discussed the desire of both the EU and Russia for increased judicial and legal cooperation in criminal and civil matters. The closing statement, along with formal statements from the Presidency representatives, are available on the Finnish EU Presidency website. WARE