European Union justice and interior ministers ended talks today after failing to reach agreement on common steps to tackle the highly sensitive problems of illegal immigration and cross-border crime.
"The truth is there is no mutual trust among the 25 member states," said Jean-Marie Cavada, head of the European Parliament civil liberties committee, who also took part in the talks.
But at talks between EU justice ministers, including Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, in Tampere, Finland, at least three countries warned against ditching sovereign rights over criminal justice affairs.
The EU's northern and southern nations clashed on the first day over how to stem a swelling tide of illegal African migrants, with Spain in particular the focus of attack for policies seen as exacerbating the influx.
Ministers acknowledged cooperation on cross-border crime was also not working well, but failed to agree on why that was and on how to change the situation.
"So far we only have the European Arrest Warrant, the other instruments are not being implemented," Dutch Justice minister Rita Verdonk said of an accelerated extradition procedure brought in just after the September 11th attacks in the United States.
Others noted the stalled EU Constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters last year, would have sped up cooperation because it obliged EU states to surrender their existing right of veto on criminal justice and police cooperation.
The Finnish EU presidency urged states to drop vetoes without waiting to see if the constitution would go into force. "(It) would have solved all the problems but we cannot remain paralysed and lie down waiting," Finnish Justice Minister Leena Luhtanen said.
The EU presidency said vetoes meant states were stuck on proposals such as ensuring work bans on paedophiles imposed in one EU state were applied in all. It also noted that any EU measures finally adopted were full of loopholes.
Vetoes can be dropped only if all 25 EU states agree to it, and only France, Spain, Finland and Luxembourg clearly spoke in favour of dropping vetoes on Friday, diplomats said. Germany again made it clear it would oppose any such move, a stance backed by others including Ireland and the Czech Republic.
Berlin fears any move now to introduce individual parts of the constitution would undermine longer-term efforts to bring it back to life in its entirety.
The meeting was the first time ministers discussed dropping vetoes. They are to hold a second round of talks next month.