Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) Virginija Langbakk and EMCDDA Director Alexis Goosdeel are at the European Parliament today where they will present to the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) highlights and priorities of the outgoing and incoming presidencies of the EU Justice and Home Affairs agencies’ network (‘JHA’ agencies’ network). EIGE took over the chair of the network from the EMCDDA on 1 January 2018.
The network of nine JHA agencies was established in 2006 to boost cooperation in the migration and security fields. Together these agencies play key advisory, operational and coordination roles in implementing EU priorities in the areas of freedom, security and justice and collaborate on a wide range of issues (e.g. human trafficking, migration and border management, drug trafficking and combating organised crime).
In 2017, technical support provided by the JHA agencies for the implementation of the European Agenda on Migration and to the European Agenda on Security remained at the centre of the network’s activities. Several technical meetings took place during the year bringing together the expertise of the nine agencies and identifying priority areas of work in analytical and operational fields, training, external relations and ICT. Special emphasis was placed on studying the links between security and health. The network chose the increased role of the internet and the use of cyberspace for criminal purposes as its overarching theme in 2017. In this context, a conference was organised in April 2017 on ‘The internet for criminal purposes — challenges and opportunities for the work of the JHA agencies’ to look at the implications for the JHA agencies and explore future issues, such as monitoring darknets.
2018 will ensure continuity of the joint effort of the JHA agencies and their key stakeholders in improving the management of the EU’s external borders, fighting organised crime and counteracting terrorism and cybercrime. Among the priority topics, proposed by new chair EIGE, is the impact of digitalisation on women and men in the policy areas covered by the network. Also proposed is the analysis of gender equality through the collection and usage of sex disaggregated data and gender statistics for relevant operational areas of the JHA agencies.
The network’s achievements in 2017 were presented to the Council’s Standing Committee on Operational Cooperation on Internal Security (COSI) on 14 December 2017.
EIGE will chair the JHA agencies’ network until 31 December in 2018, handing over to Europol in 2019.
Agenda of the LIBE meeting 24–25 January 2018
ww.emeeting.europarl.europa.eu/committees/agenda/201801/LIBE/LIBE%282018%290124_1P/sitt-7665953
Today’s event will be web-streamed at 10:00 Brussels time (CET)
www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/committees/video?event=20180125-0900-COMMITTEE-LIBE
