Italian Presidency of the EU Council

The Programme of the EU Italian Presidency in the field of internal affairs is in line with the political, strategic and operational orientations of the action which has been so far implemented by the European institutions and member States, ensuring consistency and continuity. In close synergy with the outgoing Greek Presidency and the Trio countries (Luxembourg and Latvia) Italy will carry on the negotiations on the dossiers started by the previous presidencies and still under way. In order to pursue the EU priority goals and to further progress towards the full realization of an area of freedom, security and justice, the Italian Presidency has identified and will focus on two far-reaching issues: "Mobility and Economic Growth" and "Security and Development: the European action to prevent and suppress the risks related to criminal infiltration in the legitimate economy".

With regard to the first issue it is necessary to ensure a coordinated management - and not only in terms of emergency response - of the epochal movements of persons registered in general and, in particular, in the Mediterranean area. The final desired goal is a reduced irregular immigration and a well-managed regular immigration so that it can contribute to the economic growth and EU collective wealth.

The second goal is the fight against all the illegal activities, in particular those linked to organized crime, that thrive acting parasitically on the legal economy and weaken it to an unacceptable extent. These activities, which would require a more effective and coordinated action, are more than ever typically transnational and consolidated not only by the resort to violence, but especially by availability of huge amounts of money that can also be employed for corruption purposes.

Moreover, in light of an economic development as free as possible from criminal influence or obstacles, it is necessary to keep an Internet secure space by combating cybercrime in all its forms (economic, sexual, etc.)

Obviously, high and constant vigilance should be kept on terrorism and ideological or religious radicalization, in particular when linked to incitement to violence or discrimination. In this connection, radicalization and extremism will be tackled, in particular terrorist activities conducted by lone wolves or micro cells and the use of insidious tools and methods.

During the Italian Presidency, which will be characterized by a very low legislative production due to its coincidence with the renewal of the European Parliament and Commission, the Department of Public Security intends, in the framework of the various Committees (Committee on Internal Security - COSI and Article 36 Committee - CATS) and Council working groups falling within its competence, to submit proposals on countering criminal infiltrations in the legal economy through numerous inter-related initiatives. These will also lead to the adoption of EU Council guidelines (conclusions) intended to boost the use of administrative tools for the purpose of monitoring financial flows (prevention measures and actions to safeguard procurement procedures). In this framework, an objective will also be the establishment of a European operational network to counter criminal organizations penetrating the legal economy and in particular public contracts.

With reference to cybercrime particular attention will be devoted to bank frauds and to the best practices on information exchange between law enforcement agencies and credit institutions as well as on the fight against on line child pornography.

In addition to developing European strategies against drugs, a particularly effective action will be also addressed to the fight against human trafficking and to the development of measures to prevent and counter hate crimes, discrimination, in particular violence against women. Moreover, in the field of irregular immigration special account will be taken of the best practices on the control and repatriation of irregular foreign nationals, with the implementation of measures for the safeguard of unaccompanied minors at borders.

In particular, during the Italian Presidency the Department of Public Security will commit itself to realizing the strategic guidelines in the area of freedom, security and justice to be defined during the European Council of next June (the so-called post-Stockholm Programme), as well as the related EU Internal Security Strategy. To this end, on 22 July 2014 at the Italian Police Academy, an informal COSI/CATS joint meeting will be held and exclusively devoted to discuss the development of said strategies between the high level officials responsible for security in all member States and the EU institutions involved.

Ad hoc conferences for the European Chiefs of Police and the officers in charge of this sector will also be organized, such as the Conference on the Fight Against Copper Theft and illegal Trade, the Conference of the Chiefs of Police, with the participation of Europol, and the Meeting on the Security of Transportation of Nuclear Substances and Radioactive materials.

Finally, the Italian Presidency aims at linking security with economic growth/development outlooks through interventions intended to reduce criminal conditioning to the lowest extent, and create a free and safe area balancing the security needs with the exercise of citizens' fundamental rights.

Italian version