15th Meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group (JPSG) on Europol

Brussels, 12 November 2024

Overview of the conference

Documents

Background notes

Photos

Videos

IPEX

  Welcome Address by Lajos Kósa, Chair of the Committee on Defence and Law Enforcement

Dear Visitor,

Greetings on behalf of the Committee on Defence and Law Enforcement of the National Assembly.

The Committee on Defence and Law Enforcement is a committee of mandatory establishment in Parliament. One of its main tasks is to participate in the work of the National Assembly in monitoring government activities. In the framework of its general operation, it performs its duties as stipulated in the Fundamental Law, laws and the provisions of the Rules of Procedure, and discusses bills, draft resolutions and reports that include defence and law enforcement regulations. As a specialised committee, it shall give its opinion on draft EU legislation falling within its remit, in particular on illegal migration and the protection of the EU's external borders, in the framework of the scrutiny procedure.

In addition to the above, you can find more information on the website of the National Assembly, including the names of our committee members, the minutes of our open meetings and the motions we are debating.

Hungary holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union for the second time, in the second half of 2024. Although the preparation and implementation of the presidency is essentially a governmental task, the experiences of the past years show that national parliaments play an indispensable and prominent role in the implementation of any successful EU presidency.

On behalf of the Committee on Defence and Law Enforcement, we welcome the opportunity to co-host the 15th meeting of the Europol JPSG with two other committees of the National Assembly and the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs; and I trust that we are able to discuss our agenda items in a forward-looking and constructive debate. I hope that the final outcome of our conference thus contributes to the further success of the European Union.

Welcome Address by Dr Imre Vejkey, Chair of the Committee on Justice

Dear Visitor,

As Chair of the Committee on Justice of the National Assembly, I welcome you to our website.

On 1 July 2024, Hungary assumes the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union for the second time. The preparation and management of the presidency are essentially governmental tasks, but national parliaments also play an increasingly important role.

In addition to the classic constitutional, judicial and procedural tasks, and the interpretation of the provisions of the Rules of Procedure, our committee also addresses human rights and religious affairs, civil affairs, legislation on public administration and municipalities, and data protection issues.

It is a great honour for me that the Committee on Justice, as a specialised committee of the National Assembly, together with the Committee on Defence and Law Enforcement, the Committee on European Affairs and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament, organises the 15th meeting of the Europol Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group, the JPSG, on 12 November 2024, of which our committee, as a body of the Hungarian National Assembly, has been an active member since the beginning.

Hungary's commitment to the unity of the European Union as a Christian, democratic state governed by the rule of law is clearly symbolised by the fact that this year we are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the country's accession to the EU.

Over the past twenty years, the world around us has changed fundamentally, our lives have accelerated, much of it now takes place in the digital space, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) has become part of our everyday lives. Alongside its undeniable benefits, AI also presents us with significant challenges, and therefore I trust that the conference provides an opportunity to discuss the law enforcement experiences in relation to it.

Overview of the conference 

In the framework of the Conference of Speakers of the EU Parliaments in Bratislava in April 2017, the Speakers’ Conclusions were adopted as a final document, in which the Speakers agreed to set up an interparliamentary body to scrutinise the functioning of the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol). The so-called Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group (JPSG) meets twice a year as an interparliamentary body under the compromise rules adopted as an annex to the Speakers’ Conclusions: in the first half of the year, the meeting is organised by the parliament of the country holding the presidency of the Council of the EU, and in the second half by the European Parliament. National parliaments may nominate up to 4 representatives to the group, while the European Parliament may nominate up to 16 representatives.

The JPSG provides a framework for national parliaments and the European Parliament to monitor Europol's activities in the context of the fulfilment of its targeted missions, including the impact of these activities on fundamental rights. In line with the Speakers' Conclusions, the inaugural meeting of the Europol Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group was held in Brussels on 9-10 October 2017, jointly organised by the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and the Estonian Parliament then holding the presidency, and the adoption of the Rules of Procedure in Sofia in March 2018. The duties and competencies of the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group are laid down in the Europol Regulation, in particular in Article 51 thereof.

The 3-member delegation of the Hungarian National Assembly is made up of members of the Committee on Defence and Law Enforcement, the Committee on Justice and the Committee on European Affairs, in view of the horizontal nature of the issues.

The Rules of Procedure of the conference are available here.

Documents

Background notes